. H 



■ ■ 



ma 



/ 



•V k 1 4HI 



i 




PROGRESSIVE MEN 



OF 



BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, BINGHAM, 

FREMONT AND ONEIDA 

COUNTIES, IDAHO 



ILLUSTRATED 



CHICAGO: 

A. W. Bowen & Co. 

1904 



1K0EXED 



PREFACE. 



In placing the "Progressive Men of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham. 
Fremont and Oneida Counties. Idaho," before the citizens of this section, the 
publishers can conscientiously claim that they have carried out in full every 
promise made in the prospectus. Thev point with pride to the elegance of 
the binding, of the volume, and to the beauty of the typography, to the 
superiority of the paper on which the work is printed, and the high class of 
art in which the portraits are finished. Every biographical sketch in the 
work has been submitted to the party interested for approval and correction, 
and therefore any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the person 
for whom the sketch was prepared. 

The publishers would here avail themselves of the opportunity to thank 
the citizens for the uniform kindness with which thev have regarded this 
undertaking and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary 
information. Confident that our efforts to please will fully meet the 
approbation of the public, we are 

Respectfully, 

A. W. Bowen & Co., 
% Publishers. 



f- %f/f 



INDEX. 



BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA 

COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



Adams, Aaron A. A 490 

Adams, Daniel H 475 

Adams, Samuel F 22 

Adams, William, & Son 23 

Alder, Alfred 24 

Allsop, John 1 25 

Anderson, Andrew A 350 

Anderson, Christian 278 

Anderson, Olaf S 625 

Anderson, Oliver A 443 

Anderson, Wm. H„ M. D . . . 386 

Arave, William 26 

Arrowsmith, John 27 

Athay, James . .472 

Atkinson, Thomas 586 

Ayling, Christian 28 

B 

Bagley, John 112 

Bagley, Hon. John A 102 

Balmer, John 489 

Barber, Walter R 29 

Barnes, Robert 518 

Barrow, Samuel A 31 

Bassett, Thomas E 33 

Bates, S. D 39 

Bauman, Herman 40 

Baumgartner, Charles M. ... 41 

Beattie, William M 42 

Beckstead, Gordon S 43 

Belknap, Asa W 47 

Bell, William A 48 

Benson, George T 49 

Berett, Charles H 50 

Bernard. Alfred J 21 

Berry, James A. 52 

Bingham, Elijah 53 

Birch, Robert 572 

Bird, Andrew J 637 



Bird, Charles 568 

■ Bistline, Joseph B 473 

Black, Hon. Albert H 60 

Bodily, Edward 61 

Bodily, James 482 

Bodily, William 512 

Boyce, Thomas H 62 

Bracken, Bishop Aaron F. . 69 

Bramwell, Alfred A 635 

Branson. Abraham 556 

Breckenridge, David 63 

Brian, Louis M 504 

Briggs, George 647 

Brown, Lysander 78 

Browning, Edmond 38 

Browning, George A 544 

Browning, James G 71 

i Buck, Orville 232 

Budge, Hon. Alfred 64 

Budge, Jesse R. S 73 

Budge, President William... 34 

Burgoyne, Edward 251 

Burrell, Presto 79 

Bybee, John J 621 

Bybee, Robert Lee SO 

C 

Cafferty, Purman 515 

Cahoon, Miles R 658 

-Caldwell, Major A. F 82 

Call, Cyril J. 500 

- Call, Ira 182 

Call, Josian 648 

Call, Omer S 501 

Campbell, Ben E 87 

Cannon, Carl J. . . . : 90 

Cannon, Harry L 368 

Capps, Luther Martin 89 

Carlyle, Claude M 90 

Carver. George H 95 

Chadwick, James 541 



Chapman, J. W 92 

Chase, E. M 548 

Christensen, Antoine E 91 

Christensen, Ezra 95 

Christenson, James 97 

Clark, Jesse Tuttle 662 

Clark, Bishop Wilford W . . . 98 

Clayton, Joseph 94 

Clements, Silas W 101 

Cleverly, Jesse 106 

Clifford, Leander T 99 

Cole, James M 108 

Cook, James M 627 

Cooper, A 107 

Cordon, Arthur E 628 

Cox, Edward 595 

Cox, Edward E 508 

Crawford, James B 109 

Crofts, John 422 

Crowley, Squire G 117 

Cuthbert, John A 70 

Cutler, Allen R., M. D 122 

D 

" Dabell, Alfred K 485 

Dalley, John E 142 

Dalling, John L Ill 

Daniels, Thomas 543 

Darley, Thomas T 110 

Davies, Jo'rfathan, Sr 118 

Davis, George 566 

Davis, M. J .476 

Davis, William 553 

Dayton, Moroni 119 

Denning, Dan 121 

Denning, J. H 222 

Dewsnup, Hyrum 655 

Dick, Joseph 242 

Dietrich, Prank S 314 

Dilts, John B 640 



INDEX. 



Dolbeer, A. P 126 

Driggs. Don C 121 

Dubois. Frederick T 608 

Dwight. Isaac A 12S 

Dye, James 127 

Dye. William M 130 

E 

Eames, David C 129 

Eckersell, James 136 

Edwards. Hyrum 496 

Eliott. Thomas 657 

Ellis. Thomas H 13S 

Ellison. Wesley H 6-14 

"Ellsworth, Brigham H 140 

Ellsworth. Edmund 139 

Ellsworth. Edmund 131 

Ellsworth, Edmund and Eliz- 
abeth 14.". 

Empey, Ephraim S 260 

Empey. Joseph 146 

Englis, Charles 141 

F 

Fargo. Lyman 47S 

Farmer, Erastus O 506 

Firth. Lorenza J 147 

Fisher, James C 14* 

Fisher. Joseph C 493 

Fisher. William F 510 

Flamm. Henry 150 

Foss. Ezra C. Jr 157 

Foster. George 156 

Fryar, Charles W 151 

Fullmer. Buckley M 159 

Fyelsted. Willard S 16.0 

G 

Galloway. Curtis 202 

Gardner. James 570 

Garner, John A 165 

Geddes, Hugh S 161 

George. Thomas 168 

Gifford. George W 296 

Gilchrist, Neil 167 

Goodrich. Rufus 169 

Goody, Arthur J.. Sr 560 

Gorton, Henry C 170 

Gough. John H 639 

Gray. Andrew 620 

Gray Family. The William .. 494 

Greaves, Thomas C 175 

Griffith. George 176 

Griffeth. George A 530 

Grimmett. John H 177 



11 



Haderlie, C. H 179 

Hale. Solomon H 534 

Hammer, Austin and Sarah J . 1 7:i 

Hammer. Jasper LSI 

Hammer. J. R 185 

Hammer. William A 186 

Hammond, .Milton M 583 

Hanmon. Jonathan M 569 

Hanny. Albert 567 

Hansen. Frederick C 187 

Hansen. Hans L 1S7 

Harkness, Henry 84 

Harmer. Mrs. Anna 473 

Harmison, Joseph W 603 

Harmon, Oliver C 188 

Harris. Berniee R ls:i 

Harris. C. R. J 190 

Hai ris. George H. A 197 

Harris. Joshua 198 

Harris. Martin 199 

Hart. Arthur W 200 

Hart. Hon. James H 205 

Haskins. Hiram F 191 

Hatch. Lorenzo L 207 

Hawkes. Joshua 483 

Haws. G. W 577 

Hayes, Alma 208 

I [ayes, Norman N 209 

Haywood, Joseph 638 

Heath. Albert 561 

Heath. John R 212 

Heath. W. Adolph 210 

Hegsted. Hans C. S 201 

Henderson. Martin, Jr 525 

Hendricks. Josiah 211 

Henorickx, Rev. W. J. A.... 300 

Hensley, Richard 589 

Herman. Victor 215 

Hess, David W 216 

Hess. Moroni 217 

Hibbard, George A 218 

Higham. Charles R 519 

Higham. Joseph W 220 

Hill. George E 220 

Hillman. M 587 

Hinckley, Arza Erastus 225 

Hinckley, Ira N 654 

Holm. Nels N 221 

Homer. Russell K 227 

Hopson. L. M 523 

Howell, Thomas A 526 

Huband. Heber .228 

Huffaker, Welby 229 



Hull. Robert M 230 

Humpherys, Samuel 238 

Hunter. Bishop H. H 590 

Hutchison. John P 236 

Hyde. Rosel J 514 



[ngelstrom, Bishop Andrew. .237 

Irwin. James 239 



J 



Jackson. A. H 245 

Jacobs. Sven 553 

Jacobs. Hiram S 240 

Jacobsen. Andrew 241 

Jaques, Alpha L 247 

JardTne. Richard F 64~T~ 

Jenkins. Henry E 602 

Jensen. Christ 619 

Jensen, David 246 

Jensen. Joseph 248 

Jeppesen. R. N 250 

Johnson. Andrew 249 

Johnson. Chris J 259 

Johnson. Christian J 480 

Johnson. Clifford B 253 

Johnson. John J 626 

Johnson. Joseph 255 

Johnson. Martin 162 

Johnson. Oscar 254 

Johnson. Otto E 256 

Johnson. Smith 258 

Johnston. Hon. Thomas A.. 263 

Jones. Benjamin 259 

Jones. John F 264 

Jones, John F 271 

Jones. Joseph W 266 

Jones, Reese 267 

Jones. Thomas R 268 

Jones. William A 269 

Jones. William H 271 

Jones. W. R 270 

Jordan. Joseph H 272 

K 

Keppner, Karl 276 

Killpack. John D.. Jr 650 

Kimball. William G 275 

Kinghorn. Alexander 281 

Kremer. Julius 282 

Kunz. John 283 

Kimz. William J 283 



INDEX. 



L 

Lapham, Frank V 563 

Larsen, John 284 

Lauder, Thomas N 491 

Laurence, Elisha R 539 

Lavery, Bernard J 4S6 

Lavery, Luke L 659 

Lee, Orin S., Jr 277 

Lewis, Joseph 2S6 

Lewis, Neriah R 507 

Liepert, Roman 643 

Lindsay, Philemon 289 

Lloyd, Joseph B 290 

Loyd, Samuel 291 

Lowe, Robert G 292 

Lund, Morgan H 294 

M 

Mackie, Robert 299 

Madison, Louis 301 

Marler, George W 302 

Marler, William N 303 

Martin, John 305 

Martin. Oscar 304 

Mason, James H 596 

Masonheimer, James M 306 

Mathews, Brigham 307 

Mathews, Heber 308 

Matson, John 495 

Maughan, John 537 

McCulloch, George 295 

McMurray, James 293 

Merrill, Elias S 30 

Merrill, Olonzo D 309 

Meservy, Joseph Roberts. .. .554 

Metcalt W. D 310 

Miller, Arnold D 592 

Mitchell, James, Sr 311 

Morgan, J. Brigham 318 

Morgan. John G 630 

Morris, Joseph 661 

Mulliner, Hyrum S 313 

Myler, Orrin M 645 

N 

Naef, R. H 317 

Nate, Samson 319 

Nelson, Horace P 623 

Nelson, Gustavus 320 

Newman, Alma 320 

Nickerson, Columbus 321 

Nielson, Hyrum 322 

Nielson, Niels P 479 

Nord, Nels 326 



Norton, Leander 324 

Norton, Rufus W '. . 325 

Nowlin, Jabus 327 

O 

Olsen, Frederick 329 

Olsen, John C 331 

Osborn, David, Jr 335 

Owen. James A 339 

Owen, William 332 

Owens, C. J 330 

P 

Panter. Charles 521 

Park, David H 342 

Parker, Parley P 340 

Parker, Wyman 600 

Parkinson. George C 54 

Parkinson, Samuel C 341 

Parkinson, Samuel R 344 

Parks, Jacob N 347 

Parks, W. W 348 

Paul. Edmund 502 

Paul, Walter 353 

Paul, Walter G 559 

Patrie, Martin 487 

Peck, Hezekiah H 522 

Perry, Henry M 498 

Peterson, Ebbe . 580 

Peterson, Ephraim 355 

Peterson, John 357 

Peterson, Soren J 540 

Phillips, Joseph S 531 

Pincock, George A 573 

Pincock, James H 606 

Pincock, John E 610 

Poison, James 356 

Porter, John P 192 

Porter, L. J 358 

Porter, Nahum B 358 

Powell, John 591 

Priest, William 361 

Pulley, D. A 597 

Q 

Quayle, William 360 

R 

Rawlings, Richard 517 

Raymond, Spencer V 633 

Reeves, William T 504 



Rice, A. R 599 

Rice, Lemuel J 550 

Rigby, Henry E 364 

Rigby, Pres. W. F 365 

Rich, Ben E 636 

Rich, Hon. Charles C 19 

Rich, Mrs. Emeline G 44 

Rich, Hyrum S 362 

Rich. Hon. Joseph C 132 

Richman. George H 564 

Richman, John ■ 576 

Ricks, Alfred 363 

Ricks, Hyrum 366 

Ricks, Nathan 371 

Ricks, Thomas E 545 

Ricks, Pres. Thomas E 373 

Roberts, John L 374 

Robinson, Amos 376 

Robinson, Lee S 377 

Rock, Henry 378 

Rock, Jared 379 

Rogantine. John B 520 

Rogers, Judge Harvey L 383 

Rogers, Henry T 380 

Romrielle, Charles 612 

Roper, Joseph B 381 

Rose, C. G 385 

Row, Reuben 575 

Rudd, Joseph S 546 

Russ, Nelson 552 

S 

Sant, John 528 

Sant, Thomas 529 

Sauer, Adam 384 

Saurey, Charles 390 

Sayer, John H 630 

Sayer, Thomas A 391 

Sayer, William 392 

Schneiter, Antoin 397 

Scott, Hyrum 393 

Scott, Josiah 663 

Scott, Miss May L 394 

Seedall, John R 398 

Service, Archibald W 399 

Shelley. John F 400 

Shetler, Christian C 661 

Shurtliff, Charles 401 

Siddoway, James W 571 

Simmons, Eli T 402 

Simmons, Joseph P 614 

Simmons, William C 585 

Simpson, Henry 598 

Sizemore. William M 407 



INDEX. 



Smart. Abel 408 

Smellie. John T 409 

Smith, Charles A 634 

Smith, J. Edgar 152 

Smith. Frederick 565 

Smith. George M 618 

Smith. George V., Jr 410 

Smith. Oliver T 411 

Smith, Thomas E 551 

South wick, James N 412 

Spackman. Charles A 413 

Sparks. Alfred 440 

Spongberg, Charles J 414 

Spracher. George 415 

Squires, John H 416 

Stafford, C. D.. M, D 418 

Stagner. Speed R 172 

Stanger, A. J 418 

Standrod, Hon. D. W 74 

Stauffer, E. H 419 

Steely, Oscar B., M. D 617 

Stephens, Alfred W 542 

Stevenson. E. D 557 

Stiner. Casper 649 

Stinger. John H 420 

Storer. Prank 425 

Stowell, David 426 

Stuart, David C 428 

Stueki, John U 429 

Sullivan, D. D 430 

Summers, Stephen J 498 



S tvann, Edward W 431 

Swanner. Samuel 435 

T 

Tanner, George 434 

Taylor, Albert 436 

Taylor, James C 532 

Tempest. Phineus 438 

Tolley. William F 432 

Transtrum, Ole. Jr 614 

Trowbridge, H. H 437 

U 

Underwood, John L 444 

V 
Valentine, Charles 446 

W 

Wadsworth, Abiah 448 

Wadsworth, C. W 447 

Wadsworth, Edwin A 449 

Wakley, Henry 622 

Walker, William A 578 

Walters, Daniel W 450 

Walters, W. W 451 

Ward, George P 452 



Ward, Thomas 156 

Watts, James 455 

Watts. John 454 

Watson, Robert S 613 

Webster, James W 457 

Wedekind, George 459 

West, Alexander 463 

West, Lewis A 160 

Whitman, E. D 465 

Whitman, Henry B 4i;l> 

Whitney. John K 466 

Widdison. William L 466 

Wilcox. Francis L 404 

Williams. Agarich F 471 

Williams. Milford 469 

Williams. W. D 604 

Wilson. Aaron C 474 

Wilson, Jasper C 477 

Windley, John 615 

Winegar, Gideon 548 

Winter, Timothy J 651 

Woodland. William W 516 

Woodmansee, Charles H....581 

Y 

Yager, Harry 605 

Yorgesen, Soren 273 

Young, James R 624 

Young, Josias R 584 

Young. William J 629 





<^/t^/ 




PROGRESSIVE MEN 

OF 

BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, BINGHAM, FREMONT 
AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



HON. CHARLES C. RICH. 

[From the History of Idaho.] 

A pioneer of Utah, California and Idaho, 
Hon. Charles C. Rich, who died on November 
17, 1883, figured prominently in the early de- 
velopment of these states, and took an active 
part in furthering the welfare and promoting 
the progress of the commonwealths. He was 
also a most able exponent of the faith of the 
church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
and with a colony of believers he founded the 
beautiful and thriving little city of Paris, the 
county seat of Bear Lake county, Idaho, and 
also, all of the Mormon colonies of south- 
eastern Idaho. 

A native of Kentucky, Mr. Rich was born 
in Campbell in 1809, and was of English and 
Irish ancestry. His parents moved to Indiana 
during his youth, and there he was solidly edu- 
cated. In 1829 they went to Illinois, becom- 
ing pioneer settlers of that state, and in April, 
1832, Charles C. Rich embraced the faith and 
was baptized into the church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter Day Saints, becoming one of its 
most faithful and prominent adherents. In 
1830 he went to Nauvoo, 111., where he re- 
mained until 1846, and while there he was 



elected an adjutant general in the Mormon 
forces, then a part of the Illinois militia. A 
little later, however, the regiment was dis- 
banded by the governor of the state. At that 
time Mr. Rich had been ordained a high priest 
of the church. 

In the fall of 1846, in the general Mormon 
exodus, he moved to Pisgah, Iowa, and was. 
first counsellor to President Huntingdon, and 
on the death of the president, he succeeded to 
the office thus left vacant. In March, 1847, he 
was one of a party that went to what is now 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, their winter quarters, 
where they made preparations for a journey 
to the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Rich was se- 
lected captain of a wagon train of one hun- 
dred wagons and was also the president of the 
emigrants. 

They started on their long and perilous 
journey on June 14, 1847, and, after proceed- 
ing some distance, they experienced consider- 
able trouble with the Indians. All of the 
women aided their progress on the way by 
driving teams and in other ways. The com- 
pany traveled five, ten, and sometimes fifteen 
miles a day. Thousands of Indians were 
around them and frequently stole from them, 
but on October 2, 1847, they reached their 



2t> 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



destination, having occupied three months and 
eighteen days on the way. When they arrived 
a settlement had been started. An adobe fort 
was erected shortly after their arrival at the 
site of what is now the beautiful and populous 
city of Salt Lake. 

Soon after his arrival in Utah, Mr. Rich 
was elected first counsellor to the first president 
of the Salt Lake stake, and in 1848 he was 
honored with the presidency. On the 12th of 
March following he was ordained as one of 
the twelve apostles, and, in the fall of 1849, ne 
was sent on a mission to California to estab- 
lish a settlement of members of the church at 
Bernardino. He purchased the Lugo ranch, a 
large Mexican grant of land, and became the 
founder of the town and county of San Ber- 
nardino. In 1850 he returned to the Salt Lake 
settlement and took five hundred families to 
that district of the Golden state. He had the 
management of the colony for six years and 
spent most of his time there, although he 
traveled frequently between Salt Lake and 
California. In 1857, with three wives. Mr. 
Rich returned to Salt Lake City and secured a 
farm of two' hundred acres of choice land, 
twelve miles to the north. 

When Gen. Johnston, with the United 
States troops, came to attack them, they ex- 
pected the town would be destroyed, and or- 
ganized an army to protect themselves, Mr. 
Rich being elected a colonel in the Utah forces. 
They fixed their homes so as to set fire to 
them if it became necessary, and a guard was 
left for that purpose, the women and children 
being removed to Provo. The government 
forces, however, did not disturb the homes, 
and the owners returned in July, 1858. 

In i860, Mr. Rich was sent on a mission 
to Europe and was president of the church or- 
ganization in that part of the world for about 
two and one-half years, having his head- 
quarters at Liverpool. He visited Ireland, 



Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Germany and 
France, coming back to America in 1862, 
bringing with him a large company of con- 
verts to the faith. 

He then remained at Salt Lake until Sep- 
tember, 1863, when he was called to look up a 
location for a new settlement of his people, 
and came to what is now Bear Lake county, 
Idaho. That fall thirty families from the 
Cache Valley established a settlement at Paris. 
Mr. Rich being the leading spirit in the enter- 
prise. They built log cabins and passed a 
long, hard winter. The following June 
Brigham Young traveled through the valley 
and named the towns. 

Many discouragements came to the 
pioneers in their attempts to make a perma- 
nent settlement. Frosts and grasshoppers de- 
stroyed what they planted, and times looked 
dark indeed, but President Rich imbued them 
with courage, saying he had come to settle 
and was going to stay, and that brighter days 
would dawn upon them. 

This prediction proved true, and to his 
courage and faith is largely due the fact that 
the region has been transformed into thrifty 
farms, pleasant homes and enterprising towns 
and cities. When the land came into market 
Mr. Rich secured a half-section and his sons 
also secured good homes on government 
claims. 

When the settlement was made|it was sup- 
posed to be in Utah, and Mr. Rich frequently 
represented the district in the Utah Legislature. 
He took active part in framing the laws of the 
state and no one exhibited more devotion to 
the well-being of the pioneer settlers. He 
manifested himself as one of the bravest, 
noblest and grandest of men, respected the 
rights of all, was the friend of the poor and 
was beloved by all. 

For many years it was the belief and prac- 
tice of the male members of his church to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



21 



marry a plurality of wives, that they might 
raise large families for the Kingdom of Saints 
in Heaven. Acting upon this faith, Mr. Rich 
was six times married. On February n, 
1837, Sarah D. Pea became his wife; on Jan- 
uary 3, 1845, Eliza A. Graves; on January 6, 
1845, Mary A. Phelps; on January 15, 1845, 
Sarah Peck; on February 7, 1846, Emeline 
Grover; in March, 1847. Harriet Sargeant. 
With him these wives and his father and 
mother, Joseph and Nancy (O'Neal) Rich, 
crossed the plains, and these wives were all his 
faithful helpmeets and conscientious adherents 
of the church. Five of them bore him six 
sons each, and twenty-two daughters were 
born to him, fifty-two children in all. The 
family have retained the religion of their faith. 
Three of the widows are now living and are 
comfortably provided for. 

Twenty-two of the sons and ten of the 
daughters still survive, namely : Mrs. Sarah 
Jane Miller; Joseph C., late judge of the Fifth 
judicial district of Idaho; Hiram S., of St 
Charles, Idaho ; Mary, wife of Joseph Linford ; 
Franklin D., of Paris; Elizabeth, wife of 
Milando Pratt; Mary A., wife of Dr. 
J. Pomeroy; Frances, wife of James Collins; 
Adelbert, of Canada ; Caroline, wife of Bishop 
Humphries, of Paris; William L., of Paris; 
David P., of Rexburg; Nancy, widow of Vin- 
cent Pugmire; Minerva, wife of H. S. 
Wooley; Benjamin E., of Rexburg; Amasa 
M., of Paris; George Abel, of Paris; Landon 
J., of Rich, Idaho; Martha C, wife of Samuel 
Parish; Fred C, of Salt Lake City; Samuel 
J., of Idaho Falls; Heber C, of Rich; Harley 
T. ; Ezra C, of Ogden, Utah ; Joel, of Paris ; 
Wilford, of Paris; Morgan J.; Edward I.; 
Walter P., of Paris; George 0., of Logan, 
Utah ; Alvin, of Paris ; Drusilla, wife of Wil- 
liam Streeper, Esq. 

President Rich held high offices in church 
and state with distinguished results, being a 



man of marked ability, well-fitted for leader- 
ship, and he largely promoted the advance- 
ment and interests of all southeastern Idaho. 
He built the first sawmill and the first grist- 
mill at Paris, and in numberless ways pro- 
moted the enterprises and aided in the develop- 
ment of the Bear Lake Valley. He was always 
regarded as a wise counsellor by his people, and 
neither Mormon, Jew or Gentile questioned his 
honesty or the right and justice of his advice 
or decisions. His name is held in honor and 
esteem by all who knew him, and it is insepa- 
rably connected with the history and spiritual 
welfare of all of this region. 

ALFRED J. BERNARD. 

That Idaho is pre-eminently well adapted 
for a man of industry, good habits, bright 
ideas and forceful energy to secure an inde- 
pendent financial position has been demon- 
strated many times, but the productiveness and 
the advantages of the state have perhaps never 
been better manifested than in the fact that 
Mr. Bernard, who has visited many sections 
of America and filled responsible positions in 
various places, has cast in his lot with this sec- 
tion of Idaho, and on his estate in Sevan Val- 
ley, Bingham county, finds the conditions of 
existence more pleasant, more prosperous and 
in many ways more desirable than in any of his 
former localities or vocations. 

Mr. Bernard was born in 1854, at Rich- 
mond, province of Quebec, Canada, a son of 
Ralph and Elizabeth (Oldfield) Bernard, his 
father coming in early married life to Quebec 
from his native land of England and engaging 
in agricultural pursuits until his death at an 
advanced age. The mother still maintains her 
residence at the Canadian homestead, secure in 
the love and esteem of her many friends and 
being the mother of six children. Receiving 
his early preliminary education hi the parish 



22 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



schools of Quebec province and from private 
tutors, Mr. Bernard matriculated at St. Fran- 
cis College, where he pursued the full literary 
course and was graduated therefrom. After 
his graduation he became connected with rail- 
road operations and in the course of time found 
himself in Manitoba, where he passed three 
years of service in the Northwest Mounted 
Police, thereafter engaging in wheatraising in 
that province for about four years, when he 
transferred his interests to Utah, and was 
again connected with railroading until 1888, 
when he located on his present property, where 
he acquired 160 acres by homestead entry and 
engaged in the raising of cattle, Herefords be- 
ing his favorite breed. Here his careful atten- 
tion has resulted in prosperity and the increase 
of his herds, and to the original homestead he 
has added a desert claim of eighty acres, while 
he has recently bought 160 acres more, giving 
him a fine estate of 480 acres. Mr. Bernard 
is a marked example of what the great grazing 
capabilities of Idaho may be made to produce 
and none envies him the creditable success he 
has here attained, the result of his energv and 
sound judgment. 

SAMUEL F. ADAMS. 

Clearly defined purpose and consecutive ap- 
plication to the affairs of life will bring a fair 
measure of success, and in the following mem- 
oir of one who has reached the goal of his 
ambition, the observer can learn much of the 
incentive and inspiration which lies beneath, 
for the finalities which have made Mr. Adams 
one of the representative men of his section of 
his state, and especially of Bingham county, 
have brought to him the universal esteem of 
his fellowmen, his career having been one of 
well-directed energy, strong determination, 
honorable methods and religious devotion. 

Samuel E. Adams was born on Mav 16, 



1834, in Northampton, England, of ancestors 
coming down from the earliest recorded his- 
tory as sturdy yeomen of "Merrie England," 
being a son of Samuel and Phebe (Fairy) 
Adams. The father, who was born in 18 10, 
first conducted agricultural labors and later, 
during his entire active life, devoted his atten- 
tion to shoemaking. About 1830 he came to 
the United States to join his son Samuel, with 
whom he afterward remained, receiving a ten- 
der filial care until his death in 1898, he then 
having attained an age of nearly four score 
years and ten, and he now lies awaiting the 
resurrection on the borders of Snake River. 
He was a son of John and Mary (Day) Adams, 
who were lifelong farmers of Northampton- 
shire, England. The mother of Mr. Adams 
bore twelve children and never left her native 
land, dying on the old homestead about 1872. 

Samuel F. Adams, a bright, intelligent and 
observant lad. at the age of eighteen years, 
turned his attention to the making of shoes, 
but that unrest which always impels men 
possessed of a true pioneer spirit to new lands 
and new connections, caused him to emigrate 
in 1853, and, crossing the Atlantic, he took the 
long overland journey to Ogden, Utah, mak- 
ing the way across the plains with an ox train 
of emigrant settlers of Mormon faith, with 
which religion he had also become connected. 
After a residence at Ogden of about fourteen 
years, during which he gave his attention to 
and followed various activities, he removed to 
the Cache Valley, and there engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits for the greater portion of the 
time until 1885, when he came to Idaho, and 
took up a timber entry of land and from that 
time he has here been profitably engaged in 
farming and stockraising. 

His suitably improved and productive home 
property of 160 acres is pleasantly located 
four and one-half miles west of Blackfoot. 
Bingham county, Idaho, his postoffice address 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



being Riverside. He has been prospered in 
his business and his qualifications for success- 
fully holding positions of prominence and 
trust in the state have received recognition by 
his appointment as a county commissioner, 
which very responsible office he held with con- 
ceded ability for two years. In the Church of 
Latter Day Saints he is distinctively honored 
and holds the office of counsellor to the bishop. 
The wise conservatism of his course of action, 
the excellence of his judgment and the stead- 
ily increasing numbers of his friends, all indi- 
cate the position he occupies in the esteem of 
the community. 

Mr. Adams was first married in 1855, with 
Miss Sarah Wiggins, a native of Illinois, who 
was born in 1836, and who died and was buried 
on October 6, 1877, in the Cache Valley of 
Utah, at the age of forty-one years, being then 
the mother of eleven children. His second 
marriage occurred on November 29, 1878, at 
Smithfield, Utah, being then united with Han- 
na (Eskelson) Allsop, a native of Denmark, 
born on January 9, 1849. She was at the time 
of this marriage a widow having four children. 
She came to Utah with her parents in 1863, 
the family settling in Richmond, Utah, where 
her mother still resides, the death of her father 
occurring on February 26. 1886. By her 
present marriage Mrs. Adams has had five 
children, Mettie, John Q., Nellie, LeRoy and 
Vetris. 

WILLIAM ADAMS & SON. 

One of the characteristics of the mechan- 
ical and technical industries of England is the 
maintenance of a high standard in the educa- 
tion of each workman. No sham, ignorance or 
fraud being tolerated, every one must serve a 
long term of years before he is found "duly 
and truly prepared" to engage in the vocation 
he intends to pursue, and we have ascertained 



that this long, severe and practical English 
education, handed down from father to son, is 
the source of the ability and popular standing 
of William Adams & Son, the noted black- 
smiths of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where they are 
engaged in extensive manufacturing opera- 
tions, not only as the leading blacksmiths of 
the town, but also as makers of the celebrated 
Rigby sheep wagons, farm wagons, sleighs, 
and all kinds of tools, doing general black- 
smithing, the repairing of farm machinery be- 
ing a prominent specialty, and drawing cus- 
tom from a radius of many miles of the sur- 
rounding country on account of their excellent 
workmanship. 

William Adams was born at Anstry, Eng- 
land, on February 22, 1854, a son of William 
and Maria (Smith) Adams, both of whom 
passed their entire lives in their native land, 
where William, under the competent tutelage 
of his skilled father, acquired, through long 
■years of practice and experience, that perfect 
knowledge of all branches of the blacksmith- 
ing trade which has made his name a guaranty 
for the best workmanship. In 1883 he located 
at Ogden, Utah, and he worked at his trade in 
that city for fifteen years, giving honest and 
faithful labor to his employers, in 1897 com- 
ing to Rigby and, establishing the pioneer 
blacksmith shop of the inchoate city, soon was 
controlling a large and well-pleased patronage. 
In the spring of 1903 they rented the shop at 
Rigby and moved to Idaho Falls. 

Mr. William Adams was united in mar- 
riage on February 5, 1877, in London, Eng- 
land, with Miss Susan Harmston, who was 
born on December 11, 1853, a daughter of 
John and Charlotte (Copeland) Harmston. 
The father died in 1896 at Hartfordshire, 
England. To Mr. and Mrs. Adams have been 
born two children : William A. died at Og- 
den, Utah, on July 27, 1884, at seven years of 
age, and Alfred Edward, born on June 4, 1882. 



24 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



who is now the junior partner of his father, 
having the same natural tastes and acquired 
skill in ironworking possessed by both his 
father and paternal grandfather. Both father 
and son are greatly interested in all good 
things coming to the community, and are ever 
ready to respond to all appeals for public im- 
provement, or proper private charities. 

ALFRED ALDER. 

Always earnestly and intelligently in favor 
of progress and development along healthy and 
enduring lines and willing to lend a hand to 
securing them in every proper way, Alfred Al- 
der, of Preston, Idaho, has been an influential 
and active force in building up the commu- 
nities in which he has lived in the Northwest, 
and in contributing to the enlarged comfort 
and convenience of their people. He was born 
in Wiltshire, England, on May 3, 1824, the 
son of William and Elizabeth (Beavan) Alder, 
also born and reared in England, where the 
father was a carpenter and builder, living 
there and working at his trade until his death. 

At the age of seventeen the son, Alfred, 
became a Mormon, his mother, his brother and 
his sisters also joining the church at the same 
time. In March, 1844, he came to the United 
States, locating first at New Orleans, later re- 
moving from there to Nauvoo. 111., the 
Mormon capital. There he followed his trade 
of machinist, which he had learned in the old 
country, for one summer, in the fall going to 
Cincinnati. Ohio, where he was emploved in 
a machine shop for a few months, then became 
the engineer on an Ohio River steamboat, 
which was engaged in the cotton trade. He 
was occupied in this way until 1851, when he 
went to Alton. 111., and was there an engineer 
of a stationary engine until 1852. 

In that year also, Mr. Alder took up his 
residence at St. Louis and followed the same 



vocation of stationary engineer until the spring 
of 1853, when he joined a party in crossing 
the plains to Salt Lake with ox teams, making 
the trip in three months, a very good record in 
those clays. He remained at Salt Lake during 
the winter, in the ensuing spring removing to 
kavsville, in Davis county, where he built a 
blacksmith shop of his own and continued to 
work at this craft until the spring of 1859. 
when, with a small party, he made a tour of 
inspection through the Cache Valley, passing 
through Logan, which was then but a small 
settlement of a few houses, and coming on to 
the present site of Franklin, where there were 
then no settlers. Here he worked at black- 
smithing until the autumn of i860, when he 
returned to Kavsville. built a shop and again 
took up his trade which occupied him at that 
place until 1884, except during 188 1. 1882 
and 1883. when he was on a church mission 
to England. 

In 1884 Mr. Alder came to Preston. Idaho, 
and. buying the ranch on which he now lives, 
settled down to the life of a farmer and ranch- 
man, which he followed until a few years ago. 
when he turned the care of the ranch over to 
his sons and retired from active pursuits in a 
worldly way. The ranch is two miles south- 
east of Preston, is well improved and in an ad- 
vanced state of cultivation, all being the result 
of the energy and continued industry of its 
present proprietor. While having given up his 
business enterprises of every kind, he has not 
slackened his zeal and diligence in church work. 
but still serves as a member of the high council 
of this stake. 

Mr. Alder was married on March 26, 1848. 
at St. Louis. Mo., to Miss Susan Fields, a na- 
tive of England, and a daughter of William 
and Susan ( Rouke) Fields, of that country. 
Her parents came to America in 1844. in the 
same party with Mr. Alder, and also journeyed 
to Nauvoo. but subsequently returned to St. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



25 



Louis, where the)' passed the rest of their lives. 
Mr. and Mrs. Alder have had thirteen chil- 
dren, six of whom are living, Alfred W., Susan 
M., Theodore, Clara J., Margaret and Ella. 
Mr. Alder also has one daughter by another 
marriage, whose name is Alice A. 

JOHN I. ALLSOP. 

The Allsop family has long been a prom- 
inent one in England, especially distinguished 
for its large brewing- interests, one of the pa- 
ternal relatives of Mr. John Ira Allsop, of 
Grace, Idaho, being at the present time the 
manufacturer of the celebrated "Allsop's pale 
ale," and one of the wealthiest brewers of Eng- 
land. The subject of this sketch, the son of 
John and Mary (Wood) Allsop, who emi- 
grated from England in 1854 and were married 
in August of that year on their journey across 
the plains at Laramie Station, on the westward 
trail, was born at Salt Lake City, Utah, on 
July 2, 1855, the eldest of a family of eleven 
children. His father, a skillful carpenter, car- 
ried on a prosperous business in Salt Lake City 
for man}' years, dying on October 24, 1876, 
the mother surviving him and now residing in 
Salt Lake City. Family tradition preserves 
the record that the paternal grandfather of Mr. 
Allsop was an English officer in the Napoleonic 
wars and was also one of the fifteen survivors 
of the 1,500 soldiers that embarked on an Eng- 
lish transport for the coast of France. 

On May 28, 1857, the Second Dragoons, 
Fifth and Tenth Regiments, and the Fourth 
Artillery of the U. S. troops, 2,500 in number, 
were sent to Utah by the order of Major Gen- 
eral Winfield Scott, the commanding officer of 
the U. S. army. These troops were sent to 
Utah, as the Saints believed, with the full in- 
tent of killing them. On June 18 this expedi- 
tion took up its march for Utah. By order of 
Brigham Young, then the head of the Latter 



Day Saints, every able-bodied man in the ter- 
ritory was ordered to be ready to go to the 
mountains to assist in keeping the U. S. troops 
out of the valleys of the Salt Lake district, 
where the wives, mothers and daughters were 
residing. John Allsop was one of the first 
Mormons to say "I am ready," and he went 
with the first Home Guard company of in- 
fantry to protect his home in the valley. The 
hardships these soldiers experienced were nu- 
merous and severe. They went into the bleak 
mountain country without clothes to keep them 
warm and without shoes to protect their feet 
from the snow. They had to use the green 
skins of the freshly slaughtered cattle in the 
making of moccasins, which they were forced 
to wear. After this reign of terror and suffer- 
ing was over Mr. Allsop served six months in 
the Echo Canyon war. 

Having the educational advantages of the 
schools of Utah, Mr. Allsop received a solid 
and practical education therein, and at the age 
of twenty-one years commenced business for 
himself, for seven years devoting- himself to 
cabinet work, then becoming the capable fore- 
man of a bridge construction corps on the 
Union Pacific Railroad and continuing to be 
thus employed for three years. A man of 
great activity and energy, he has since that 
time been associated with various vocations; 
for two years he was in a profitable meat busi- 
ness at Richmond, Utah, while later, in 1883, 
he was engaged in sawmill operations at Rich- 
mond, Utah. 

Coming to Bingham county, Idaho, in the 
spring of 1884, Mr. Allsop here found the op- 
portunities for financial reinforcement so plen- 
tiful that he there resided until 189 1, when he 
changed his residence to Gray's Lake in 1893, 
removing to Camas Meadows, in Fremont 
county; from there, in 1897, coming to his 
present home, where he has since been fully oc- 
cupied in attending to the supervision of his 



26 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



extensive farming and stockraising operations. 
His home ranch consists of 320 acres, which 
will soon be under effective irrigation, and is 
the headquarters of his stockraising, running 
from here a large number of cattle of a superior 
quality. He has taken active part in the 
needed developing work of this new country, 
has especially given attention to the great prob- 
lem of supplying water to the sagebrush des- 
erts, and is at the present writing a stockholder 
in the Last Chance Irrigation Canal Co., of 
which he was one of the inceptors, serving 
also on its directorate and as the presi- 
dent of the company. The practical abil- 
ity possessed by Mr. Allsop combined with 
his earnestness in the advocacy of all meas- 
ures of local progress have given him a 
marked standing and popularity among the 
people, and he is now serving his second 
term as justice of the peace with accepta- 
bility to the oreneral public. In church 
relations he has been equally vigilant and 
earnest, serving as ward teacher for over 
twenty-four years, filling two home missions in 
this state with unqualified success, and he is 
now one of the High Council of the Bannock 
Stake of Zion. 

On May 8, 1879, at Salt Lake City, under 
the direction of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints, occurred the marriage of 
Mr. Allsop and Miss Mary Tanner, a daughter 
of George and Martha (Craner) Tanner, and 
for their history and ancestral data of the fam- 
ily we refer the reader to the sketch of George 
Tanner appearing on other pages of this vol- 
ume. The happiness of Mr. and Mrs. Allsop 
has been greatly intensified in the extension of 
their family circle by the arrival of nine bright 
and companionable children, the eldest being 
now deceased, the names and dates of the 
others following: Evelyn, born June 26. 
1882; George T.. born March 13, T884; Eliza- 
beth, born March 15, 1886; William, born Jan- 



uary 30, 1888; Charles A., born January 30, 
1891 ; Louisa, born January 13, 1893; Chloe, 
born January 7. 1895: Albert, born March 26. 
1900. The two elder daughters are students 
of the Salt Lake City schools. 

WILLIAM ARAVE. 

The men of nerve and enterprise who con- 
duct fruitful industries in the community not 
only impress their personality upon the times 
with which they are intimately associated, but 
serve as object lessons to a much greater range 
of territorv. being noted examples of what 
business thrift, capability and energy will ac- 
complish even under unpropitious and un- 
promising conditions, while their influence will 
continue to live years after they shall have 
passed away and the present generation been 
succeeded by other men and other peo- 
ple. Among these representtaive men 
who are located in Bingham county, we 
should be derelict in duty if we did 
not give more than a mere mention 
to that useful and energetic citizen and capa- 
ble farmer. William Arave. whose influence in 
all matters concerning the community is 
prominentlv felt and universally acknowl- 
edged. 

Mr. Arave was born on January 14. i860, 
at L T inta, L T tah. a son of Nelson and Araline 
fWadsworth) Arave, his father being a native 
of the state of New York, where he was born 
on December 18. 1834, of French parentage, 
and there passed his life in active operation of 
useful industries until 1852, when he made the 
long and wearisome journey across the plains 
of the American continent, performing the 
journey with ox teams as a member of a Mor- 
mon caravan, thereafter being employed at the 
carpenter's trade, in which he was a skilled 
workman, until 1889, when he made his resi- 
dence at Basalt, in Binsrham county. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



27 



William Arave possessed the necessary 
qualifications for successful operations in cat- 
tleraising, and in the diversified farming which 
is carried on in this section of the' West, and 
in 1886 he located on a ranch of 160 acres, 
which he secured as a government homestead 
and has developed into> a truly beautiful home 
of attraction and of fertility, having a commo- 
dious residence and other necessary accompa 
niments for the successful carrying out of the 
agricultural operations to which he has devoted 
his attention. A loyal, law-abiding citizen, 
Mr. Arave is in full accord with the principles 
of the Republican party, in which he is the 
committeeman of his precinct and has served 
three terms as a justice of the peace, and is a 
faithful worker in the ranks of the Church of 
Latter Day Saints, performing most faithful 
service as first counsellor to the bishop. 

On May 12, 1881, Mr. Arave was united in 
marriage with Miss Ida Clark, a native of Den- 
ver, Cola, and a daughter of Leonidas and 
Dorcas (Higley) Clark, natives of Indiana and 
Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Arave have been the 
parents of eleven children, whose names in 
order of their birth are as follows : Amy, Dor- 
cas (deceased). Bertha, Ida, Leonidas (de- 
ceased), Earl, Lana, Frank, Laura, Harold, 
Verna and Elmer. 

JOHN ARROWSMITH. 

The old-time pioneers have nearly passed 
away. Those who stood in the early days to 
protect the community from Indian assaults, or 
carried the war to their hiding places in moun- 
tain and canyon, have one by one passed from 
earth, until now only a few men with silvered 
hair are left to tell their descendants through 
what determinate courage, endeavor and hero- 
ism has been wrought out the magnificent civ- 
ilization of activity and peace which now holds 
sway in this fair land. Mr. Arrowsmith is one 



of this honored number, in evidence of the 
truth of which statement he holds a badge of 
pure gold, presented to him at the pioneer 
jubilee, held at Salt Lake City in 1897, as an 
acknowledgment of his being one of the mini ■ 
ber who crossed the plains in 1847, the year of 
the first migration of the Mormon people. 
The story of his life is both interesting and in- 
structive, and we are glad to here record it for 
future generations to contemplate. 

John Arrowsmith, now an honored resi- 
dent of Lewisville, Idaho, was born in Mercer 
county, Illinois, on Christmas Day, 1841, a son 
of William and Elizabeth (Taylor) Arrow- 
smith, both natives of England, but who were 
in Illinois engaged in prosperous milling opera- 
tions, which were suddenly brought to an end 
by the untimely death of the father by drown- 
ing at thirty-two years of age. The mother 
thereafter followed the fortunes of the follow- 
ers of the doctrines of Joseph Smith, with her 
infant son meeting all the hardships, depriva- 
tion and suffering which marked the journey 
to winter quarters in 1846, and on to the Land 
of Zion in 1847. Settling at Salt Lake City, 
she later married with George Boyce, and at 
the venerable age of eighty-four years she is 
now living in the city where she established 
her first Utah home. 

John Arrowsmith commenced life on his 
own account at seventeen years of age, and he 
drove a herd of cattle from Salt Lake City to 
the mining camps of Montana in 1864, where 
he remained at Virginia City for some months, 
thence returning to Utah, and for a period of 
about six years he was engaged in logging 
operations, his coming to the Snake River Val- 
ley and to Lewisville dating on August 10, 
1884, where he located on his present home- 
stead. He was in service during the whole 
period of the Blackhawk war as a private, saw 
active service also in the Sanpete Indian 
troubles, and participated in the hotly contested 



28 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



battle with the Indians in the Thistle Valley, in 
all of these operations of military life manifest- 
ing courage and a knowledge of correct Indian 
fighting. In 1862 he was with Lot Smith en- 
gaged in protecting the overland stages. From 
Bridges, Wyo., they chased a party of 
Bannock Indians up through Jackson Hole. 
The Indians had stolen 150 head of horses. 
After coming to Lewisville he was concerned 
in the building of the successive irrigation 
canals constructed, being also a stockholder in 
the Parks & Lewisville and Burgess canal com- 
panies. In political views he has ever been a 
Republican, and he has held the office of road 
overseer with benefit to his district, while in 
the Church of Latter Day Saints he has been 
an efficient elder since 1864. 

Christmas Day, 1866, witnessed the mar- 
riage ceremonies of Mr. Arrowsmith and Miss 
Lucretia Howard, who was born on May 27, 
1845, at Belfast, Ireland, a daughter of Wil- 
liam and Elizabeth (Anderson) Howard, who, 
in 1852, came to Utah, the father conducting 
a train across the plains, and locating at Salt 
Lake City, in the same year. Bringing a large 
amount of goods from Ireland, he sold part of 
them in St. Louis, then hauled thirty wagon- 
loads of goods across the plains and established 
a general merchandising business which he 
continued for five years. He then moved to 
Big Cottonwood, where he opened at Salt Lake 
City the first store of the place. He there es- 
tablished a distillery which he operated until 
his death, in 1891, at seventy-five years. The 
mother died from a paralytic stroke received in 
1893. A brief record of the children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Arrowsmith will appropriately close 
this review : William, born on September 29. 
1867, died on July 25, 1890; he was lost on the 
hills when twenty years of age and came near 
freezing to death ; at a later time, in coming 
from Idaho Falls, he nearly lost his life by 
freezing, having to walk all the way in terribly 



cold weather to Lewisville, where great effort 
was required to save his life ; Elizabeth, born 
on January 22, 1869, married Reuben Casper, 
and died on April 3, 1903; Lucretia. born on 
November 21. 1870, married James Ricks; 
Alice, born on October 5, 1872, died cue year 
later; John, born on August 5, 1874; Mary, 
born on September 9, 1876, married LeRoy 
Jardine; Joseph, born on April 9, 1879. died in 
infancy; Agnes, born on January 18. 1881. 
died in 1895: Erin H.. born on January 9, 
1882, died in 1884: Lenora, born on Septem- 
ber 10, 1884; Rachel, born on December 30. 
1886, died February 1, 1904, only four chil- 
dren being now left of the eleven. 

CHRISTIAN AYLING. 

This prosperous agriculturist of Fremont 
county. Idaho, where be maintains bis bom? en 
the finely improved ranch to which he has 
given diligent improvement since 1892, the 
date of his removal hither, comes of an ancient 
family of Denmark where the lines of ancestry 
run back for countless generations and where 
he himself was born on April 4, i860, a son of 
Andrew and Terena Ayling, the father dying 
when Christian was but a babe and the mother 
thereafter emigrating under Mormon auspices 
and crossing the plains to Utah amid the many 
perilous hardships experienced by the ox-train 
emigrants of that period, and, when Christian 
was about four years old, marrying Ludwig 
Ericson, who brought the family to Cache \ "al- 
ley, Utah, in 1867, engaging there in the culti- 
vation of the soil and in stockraising with 
profitable results, himself and wife still being 
residents of the farm where they first made 
their home. 

After giving earnest and unstinted service 
to the interests of his stepfather until he was 
twenty-one years of age. Mr. Ayling engaged 
in various occupations <>n his own account un- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



29 



til he came to Rexburg, where he arrived on 
July 23, 1884, soon using his homestead right 
on 160 acres west of the thriving town and re 1 
siding there until 1892, when, disposing of 
this property, he made a permanent residence 
on his present estate, where he is devoting 
generous attention to horticulture, as well as 
to the usual farming operations of the locality, 
having a promising orchard which has freely 
demonstrated the superior capabilities of this 
section for the production of fruit. 

From his first settlement he has cheerfully 
done his full part in all of the requisite labors 
for the development of the section, was early 
identified with the irrigation projects and with 
other measures of vital importance, was one 
of the directors and a watermaster of the Rex- 
burg Irrigating Canal Co., and also held the 
same offices in the Consolidated Farmers' 
Canal Co. The same conscientious devotion 
which has ever marked all of his administra- 
tions of official trusts in civil life has been in 
evidence in his church relations, being called to 
numerous positions of consequence in the Mor- 
mon church and ordained a deacon in 1869 and 
for nine years retaining that office, while at the 
time of his marriage he was consecrated an 
elder and in due time became one of the Sev- 
enties, then was made an alternate to the High 
Council and became a counsellor to President 
Thomas E. Ricks, and now is in the incum- 
bency of the station of high priest, ,in which 
capacity he is worthily maintaining the dig- 
nity and sancity of his holy charge, and he 
has given and is giving zealous and valuable 
service in the home mission field. 

At Salt Lake City on December 1, 1881, 
Mr. Ayling was united in marriage with Miss 
Mar}' E. Christiansen, a daughter of James 
and Karon Christiansen, natives of Denmark, 
who came to Utah in 1862 and settled in San- 
pete county, where the mother died, the family 
home later being transferred to Brigham City, 



where the father died on February 17, 1894, 
and was buried at Newton cemetery. A family 
of interesting children have come to the home 
of Mr. and Mrs. Ayling, namely : James C, 
born September 25, 1882; Karen E., born De- 
cember 31, 1884; Mary A., born May 13, 
1887, died on January 13, 1891 ; Minnie, born 
November 13, 1890; Evelyn, born February 
13, 1897; Letha, born February 26, 1899. 
The family is a constituent part of the social 
activity of the community, and is highly es- 
teemed, both young and old of society circles 
here finding most hospitable and enjoyable en- 
tertainment. 

WALTER R. BARBER. 

Among the many successful stockmen of 
the section of Idaho where he maintains his 
home, there is perhaps not one who is more 
thoroughly acquainted with the technical 
knowledge necessary to conduct extensive cat- 
tleraising operations to success, than is the un- 
pretentious subject of this review, who, during 
all of the period of his active life, has made this 
important department the subject of his special 
care and the field of his intelligent and success- 
ful business endeavors. Occupying, as he does, 
a truly representative position in this capacity, 
a suitable mention of his activities falls within 
the scope of this volume, and the historian is 
pleased to be able to preserve the record for an 
incentive to coming generations, and for an ex- 
ample that others may see how this grand' 
country of immense possibilities rewards the 
diligent laborer. 

Walter R. Barber, now a resident of Bing- 
ham county, Idaho, where his finely improved 
ranch of 320 acres is pleasantly located five 
miles north of Freedom, Wyo., was born 
on January 14, 1859, at Lehi, Utah, the son of 
George and Louisa (Raymond) Barber. His 
father, a native of England, and a son of Rob- 



3° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ert Barber, was for many years a seaman in 
the merchant service of the Atlantic, who. be- 
coming a convert to the doctrines of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, followed an ox 
team "the plains across" in 1850, thereafter 
engaging in the sale of agricultural imple- 
ments at Logan, Utah, for many years. His 
death occurred in Chihuahua, Mexico, and his 
remains are buried at Logan. At his death he 
had attained the age of sixty-five years, being 
at that time the president of the high priests' 
quorum. The mother, a native of Vermont, 
came to Salt Lake 'City with her parents in her 
early childhood, her father. Pierce Raymond, 
dying on the plains before arriving at the end 
of his journey, and, after a life of beneficent 
usefulness, she now resides at Logan at the age 
of sixty-five years, being the mother of eight 
children. 

The subject of this review was a resident 
of the Cache Valley of Utah until he was 
twenty-nine years old, and, in these early years. 
he developed a strong physique, an accurate 
judgment and a wise discrimination of the 
merits of the various breeds of cattle raised in 
this part of the country, becoming extremely 
well qualified for the life of a stockman. In 
1882 he first engaged in this line of industry 
for himself, locating then on Salt River, Wy- 
oming, taking up a homestead of 160 acres on 
Jackknife Creek, and also purchasing 160 acres 
in Bingham county. Idaho. At a later date he 
made his home at Tin Cup, Bannock county. 
Idaho, where he was the proprietor of 640 acres 
of productive land. Selling tms property, he 
made his location at his present residence in 
Bingham county, where he has 160 acres of 
land, which his industrious and active endeav- 
ors are rapidly transforming into conditions of 
rare capability for conducting his cumulative 
and profitable cattleraising. his knowledge of 
the business bringing him highly satisfactory 
financial returns from the large herds of super- 



ior cattle he is ranging, Baldface animals be- 
ing his favorite stock. 

Mr. Barber is interested in all public mat- 
ters as a member of the Democratic political 
part}-, but has no "bee in his bonnet" for any 
public or political office or position, while in the 
Mormon church he is performing most useful 
service as a member of the Seventies. In Oc- 
tober, 1893, Mr. Barber was married, the 
bride being Miss Clara Whittle, a native of 
Utah, and a daughter of Casper and Mary A. 
( Harris) Whittle, her parents being early Mor- 
mon immigrants into her native state, where 
the father lived until his death and the mother 
still resides. Mr. and Mrs. Barber have one 
child, Mary, born on August 12, 1894. and the 
family occupies a well-defined position in the 
community of their residence. 

ELIAS S. MERRILL. 

The successful efforts of Mr. Merrill in 
the acquisition of a finely improved and pro- 
ductive ranch of a high financial value is an 
object lesson to men of integrity, industry and 
habits of economy and steady application, who 
are, as Mr. Merrill assures us he was when he 
came to this favored region in 1882. "entirely 
without means," showing what the Snake 
River Valley has afforded and still affords to 
the hand of the diligent. Mr. Merrill is re- 
garded as one of the most enterprising and 
prosperous of the numerous farmers of this 
portion of the state, and his energy, his un- 
tiring industry and capable management have 
been the chief elements in his well-deserved 
success and have gained him a position among 
the substantial residents of Fremont county. 
He was born at Smithfield, Utah, on April 19. 
1804, a son of Solomon and Lucinda J. (Olm- 
stead) Merrill, natives of Towa. The mother 
in early life accompanied her parents to Utah 
with one of the earliest ox-team companies. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3i 



the father also as a youth accompanying his 
parents over the same weary road across the 
plains, both families locating at Salt Lake 
City, where the parents met, and were married 
in 1862, thereafter locating as farmers at 
Smithfield in the Cache Valley, where they 
still reside, having reared a family of thir- 
teen children. 

Elias S. Merrill, when seventeen years of 
age, engaged in construction work on the 
Utah Northern Railroad for nearly a year, 
thereafter on March 10, 1883, making his first 
visit to Menan, where for three years he dili- 
gently labored for the pioneer settlers. Then 
filing on a homestead, he has since devoted 
his attention chiefly to the development, culti- 
vation and improvement of his land, which 
has now become one of the handsome and at- 
tractive estates of the vicinity, among its valu- 
able improvements being a handsome resi- 
dence, erected in 1901, and a thrifty young 
orchard of about forty trees, nearly all of 
whom have come into bearing. He was a pio- 
neer in irrigation, with three companions tak- 
ing out a ditch from the Teton River which 
is still in use, and later identifying himself 
with the Long Island Irrigation Co., on whose 
canal he has worked every year from 1885, 
being a stockholder, a director for about eight 
years and its watermaster for two years. In 
the discharge of every duty, public or private, 
Mr. Merrill has ever been prompt, thorough 
and accurate, and his interest in everything 
that affects the welfare of the people is so 
great and his impulses are so generous that he 
has a host of friends among the great-hearted 
pioneers of the Upper Valley. In the Church 
of Latter Day Saints he has been a faithful 
deacon from his childhood, earnest and active 
in all good works. 

His marriage with Miss Melvina Scott, a 
daughter of Ephraim and Sarah (Smithes) 



Scott, occurred on January 15, 1889. Her 
mother was born on the plains near the Platte 
River while her parents were on their road to 
Utah, and her father had his birth in Hancock 
county, 111. Their marriage was celebrated on 
November 9, 1867, at Salt Lake City, where 
they made their home until November, 1888, 
when they removed to Menan, where the father 
died on May 28, 1898, and the mother still lives, 
the parent of ten children, of whom nine are 
now alive. To this very fortunate marriage of 
Mr. and Mrs. Merrill have been born the fol- 
lowing named children: Melvina, born Octo- 
ber 15, 1890, died aged two years, buried at 
Cedar Buttes; Elsie T., born February 28, 
1891 ; Eldon L., born March 11, 1892; Jane 
E., born January 29, 1894, died at six years; 
Mary L., born April 21, 1896, died at four 
years ; Inez L., born December 5, 1901 ; and 
one other, born February 9, 1903. 

SAMUEL A. BARROW. 

A chapter in a revised edition of "Looking 
Backward" might commence in this manner: 
"A short time previous to the close of the Nine- 
teenth Century, a large immigration began to 
flow into the valley of the Snake River in 
Idaho, particularly into the new lands of the 
Upper Valley, continuing steadily for years. 
These people were nearly all Mormons coming 
from Utah, whence the congested condition of 
the too thickly populated state caused their em- 
igration. They were an energetic, industrious 
and intelligent community, held together in 
harmonious union by their religious connec- 
tion with the Church of Latter Day Saints, and 
set to work with a will and in co-operation to 
improve their new home. Year by year they 
enlarged the productive acreage of the valley 
through the introduction of water from vast 
irrigating canals, which their industry provided, 



32 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



and they proved the best and the most desir- 
able settlers which the valley could have found. 
They attracted other settlers and the region in 
the first quarter of the Twentieth Century be- 
came thickly settled and was noted as one of 
the best cultivated portions of the West." 

The truth of such a narration as this is al- 
ready demonstrated, and in the subject of this 
review, Samuel A. Barrow, we have one of the 
excellent class of settlers described above. He 
was born on January 23, 1865, at Columbus, 
Neb., a son of John and Martha (Galley) Bar- 
row, natives of England, who in a very early 
day left their native land for the new Zion es- 
tablished in the desert shores of Salt Lake in 
fulfillment of their full acceptance of the Mor- 
mon faith. They had not an easy time of it. 
Their journey across the plains was accom- 
plished amid all the fatigue, discomforts and 
hardships attendant on the travel of a handcart 
brigade. They resided for a term of some 
years in Utah, then went east to Nebraska 
with their household goods drawn by oxen, 
being there engaged in farming until the death 
of the father in 1878, at fifty-nine years, after 
which sad event the mother returned to Utah, 
where she is now resident. 

Samuel A. Barrow was the sixth one in a 
family of ten children, and, from the exigen- 
cies occurring through the death of his father, 
he was compelled to take a man's position when 
only thirteen years of age, from that time giv- 
ing loyal and efficient service in the support of 
his widowed mother and the younger members 
of the family. In March, 1886. he came to 
Rigby, Fremont county, Idaho, took up a pre- 
emption claim and has since been engaged in 
farming and in stock-raising. A very simple 
proposition this would seem to an Eastern man. 
unacquainted with the sage plains and the dev- 
astations wrought by squirrels and rabbits 011 
the crops, when the land, through earnest and 
steadilv sustained labor, had been brought into 



a condition allowing crops to grow. The set- 
tlers too well know what struggle had been de- 
manded, what privations had been encoun- 
tered, what discouraging features had been 
presented before the wolf was turned from the 
door. With others, Mr. Barrow aided in the 
construction of the needed irrigation canals, and 
he is now a stockholder in the Great Feeder 
and the Rigby Irrigation Canals, while he has 
given willing aid in all other matters of public 
benefit. 

In the Logan Temple of Utah, on Septem- 
ber 26. 1889, was solemnized the marriage un- 
ion of Mr. Barrow and Miss Lydia J. Call, who 
was born at Willard. Utah, on August 'io, 
1869. To this hamonious union have been 
born nine children, Martha Sarah, on August 
25, 1890; Omer Samuel, on March 9. 1891 ; 
Ivy L., on June 28. 1892; Orlean L.. on April 
2. 1804; Albert J., on April 20. 1896: Orville 
E., on February 3, 1898; Leila A., on Novem- 
ber 6. 1899; Lloyd G. died at birth, on De- 
cember 19. 1902; Lowell J., born June 17. 
1903. died at birth. 

Mr. and Mrs. Barrow stand high in the be- 
neficent work of the church, he l>eing first a 
teacher, then an elder, serving as the president 
and the secretary of the Young Men's Mutual 
Association, as Sunday-school teacher and as 
ward teacher. In other and various ways he 
has been prominent in the activities of the 
church from his first arrival in Rigby. Mrs. 
Barrow has ever been an able coadjutor of her 
husband, being a teacher and the treasurer of 
the relief society and officially connected with 
the Young Ladies' Association. She was also 
a teacher in Sunday-school for ten years, al- 
ways ijeing energetic in aiding the poor and 
giving needed care to the sick, and being also 
the very competent leader of the church choir 
for several years as well as the popular chor- 
ister of the primary meetings for fourteen 
vears. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



33 



THOMAS E. BASSETT. 

Thomas E. Bassett, now one of the most 
prominent citizens of the southeastern part of 
the state of Idaho, who has inspired and carried 
out many important enterprises for the devel- 
opment and improvement of that section of 
the country and for the advancement of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
to which he has given most untiring devotion, 
earnest zeal and loyal duty, and who has been 
connected with the pioneer history of this sec- 
tion of the state in a most marked degree, was 
born on November 26, 1862, at Cardiff, in the 
southern part of Wales, England, a son of 
Thomas and Margaret (Edwards) Bassett, the 
father having birth on June 7, 1827, and resid- 
ing in his native land until 1876, holding there 
the responsible position of foreman of an ex- 
tensive coal shipping company for twenty 
years of his active life. During his residence 
in Utah the father steadily followed agricul- 
tural pursuits until his removal to Rexburg in 
1884, where his death occurred on May 23, 
1893. He was a son of Richard Bassett, who, 
born in South Wales on December 19, 1778, 
passed his entire life as a farmer and stock- 
raiser in Wales, dying on December 2, 1855. 
His wife, Mary (Millward) Bassett, was born 
in 1787 and died on April 4, 1847. Richard 
Bassett was a son of a Richard Bassett, who 
could trace his ancestry back for generations 
in the rugged land of Wales, he being a native 
of Sully, a farmer, marrying there a Mary John, 
who died on January 1, 1779, and surviving her 
until 18 19 when he too* joined the Great Ma- 
jority. 

The mother of Thomas E. Bassett was also 
a native of Cardiff, Wales, having been born 
there on November 1, 1827, and there her mar- 
riage occurred on January 27, 185 1. She was 
the daughter of William and Rebecca (Wil- 
liams) Edwards, both her parents being na- 



tives of Wales and of families distinguished for 
many generations in that country, where her 
father died on December 24, 1856, and her 
mother on December 31, 1859; her birth occur- 
ring on January 16, 1786. Rebecca Williams 
was a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Da- 
vids) Williams, the birth of Thomas occurring 
on June 3, 1743, at Wenvoe, where he died in 
1809. Elizabeth Davids was born on March 
25, 1751, at St. Nicholas and died in 1835 at 
Llandaff, Wales. The mother of Mr. Bassett 
is now living at Rexburg, the mother of eight 
children, of whom six are living. 

Thomas E. Bassett was thirteen years of 
age when he arrived in Utah, where he attained 
his manhood at the paternal home, assisting his 
father in his agricultural operations, and being 
for four years a popular station agent of the 
railroad at Mendon. In 1883 Mr. Bassett be- 
came a resident of Fremont county and en- 
gaged in farming and stockraising operations 
and he filed upon a homestead of 160 acres at 
Salem in 1883, this being one of the first pieces 
of land taken up in the vicinity of that now 
thriving place, and from this time Mr. Bas- 
sett was a true pioneer. He taught the first 
school in Rexburg, was commissioned the first 
postmaster of the place, helped to fence the 
first field, aided in constructing the first irri- 
gation ditch and in many and various ways he 
has done well his part in the pioneer work and 
development of this section of the state from 
the wildness of its original condition. 

Shortly after moving to Rexburg he was se- 
lected by the church as the clerk to take charge 
of the records of the colony, being the first to 
hold this position, the colony then being known 
as the Bannock Ward of Cache Valley Stake. 
This position he held, faithfully and assiduously 
attending to its duties until called by the 
church to go on a mission to> Europe, on which 
he departed from Salt Lake City on May 8, 
1888, laboring: in the Kent District of the 



34 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



London, England, Conference for one year 
after his arrival, and thereafter presiding- over 
the Norwich Conference for the same length 
of time, returning to Utah on May 8, 1890. 
Mr. Bassett was alternate high counsellor 
of the Bannock stake on August 18, 1890. 
When Bingham stake was segregated 
from Bannock stake, Mr. Bassett was 
made the second counsellor to Pres. Thomas 
E. Ricks, being ordained on June 10, 
1895, and on April 29, 1901, he was made 
the first counsellor to President Ricks, while 
on January 26, 1902, he was promoted to the 
responsible position of president of the Fre- 
mont Stake, formerly known as Bannock 
Stake. He is also holding with distinguished 
abilty the office of president of the board of 
education of Ricks Academy which embraces 
the stakes of Fremont, Bingham and Teton. 

In politics he is stanchly arrayed with the 
Democratic party, and in 1896 he received the 
nomination for state senator for his senatorial 
district and was elected by a very complimen- 
tary vote at the subsequent election, discharg- 
ing the duties of that high office to the eminent 
satisfaction of his constituents and being the 
efficient chairman of the committee on irriga- 
tion during the session of that body. Three 
times he has held the office of postmaster at 
Rexburg, is now the vice-president of the Te- 
ton Island Irrigation Co. and he is also con- 
ducting the raising of fine horses and cattle to 
a limited extent and also engaged in ranching, 
being prospered in his undertakings and hold- 
ing a prominent place in all business circles of 
the county. 

On April 14, 1886, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Bassett with Miss Lucy A. Lutz, a na- 
tive of Smithfield, Utah, and a daughter of 
Thomas and Mary (Merrill) Lutz. natives re- 
spectively of the states of Pennsylvania and 
New York. The marriage of her parents oc- 
curred in Salt Lake City in i860, both crossing 
the plains with the first freight trains of Mor- 



mon emigration. The father died in 1884 at 
Smithfield, Cache county, where most of his 
life in Utah was passed. In 1862 he was a sol- 
dier in Lot Smith's company of volunteers, en- 
listing to resist the aggression of the Indians 
and in pursuit of hostile tribes crossing through 
Idaho and Wyoming, meeting with many ad- 
ventures and experiences. Mrs. Mary (Mer- 
rill) Lutz was born at Byron, Seneca county. 
N. Y.j in 1842, being a daughter of Orrin and 
Emily Merrill, and crossing the plains in 1857 
with the first freight train that conveyed goods 
to the Mormon settlement in Utah. She has 
passed a most industrious, useful and prolific 
life, and is the honored parent of twelve chil- 
dren, of whom six are now living. Lucy A. 
(Lutz) Bassett was born on May 1, 1867, be- 
ing a daughter of Thomas J. and Mary M. 
(Merrill) Lutz. The eminent position that 
Mr. Bassett occupies in the esteem of the com- 
munity and in his church association is amply 
merited, and he has the highest respect of all 
with whom he has been associated, either so- 
cially or in a business way, and all unite in 
wishing him a long continuance of happy life 
in the land which he has so much to bring into 
civilization. 

PRESIDENT WILLIAM BUDGE. 

The pen of the biographer has seldom a 
more engaging theme than the life Story of a 
good citizen who has grown old in the service 
of his people, and has lived to see the fruit of 
his labors in their prosperity and happiness, 
and the established success of valued public 
institutions, to whose creation and develop- 
ment he has essentially contributed. Such a 
theme is presented in the career of President 
William Budge, of Paris. Idaho, a territorial 
and state senator of Bear Lake county, who 
has been for a long time a leader in the benef- 
icent work of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Dav Saints in his state and else- 




WILLIAM BUDGE. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



37 



where. He was born in the town of Lanark, 
Lanarkshire, Scotland, on May i, 1828, the 
son of William and Mary (Scott) Budge, who 
were also of Scottish birth and ancestry. His 
father, who was a Highlander, was born in 
Edinburgh, and his mother was a native of the 
town of Douglas. Both families were of high 
social standing and the parents of President 
Budge were zealous members of the Presby- 
terian church. The father died at the age of 
sixty-three and the mother at the age of forty- 
seven. Their family consisted of eight chil- 
dren, of whom President Budge was the sec- 
ond in order of birth. 

William Budge was sent to the schools of 
his vicinity in his native land, but his oppor- 
tunities for regular attendance were meager, 
and his acquirements therefrom were very 
limited. Subsequent extensive reading, re- 
flection, the requirements of the high secular 
and religious positions which he has been se- 
lected to fill, and the resultant contract with 
the world have supplied the deficiency in a very 
large measure, and he must now in all truth 
be called a highly educated gentleman, self- 
made and self-educated. At the age of twenty 
he was converted to the faith of the Mormon 
church, and very soon afterward became a 
strong advocate of the truth of his belief, do- 
ing missionary work of great value in Eng- 
land, Scotland, Germany and Switzerland. 
For a number of years he was the second 
counsellor of the president of the church in 
Europe, and much of his missionary and evan- 
gelizing work was accomplished before he was 
thirty years of age. 

In i860 he brought to the United States a 
band of devoted followers, numbering about 
600 men and women, in a sailing vessel named 
the William Tapscot, and the voyage was a 
memorable one in the annals of the church. 
They reached New York in July, and, being 
joined there by other converts, all started on 



the long journey to Salt Lake City. When 
they reached the terminus of railroad and 
steamboat travel, at a town called Florence, 
near Omaha, Neb., they made up a train of 
seventy-two ox teams, and, with Mr. Budge 
as captain, pursued their dangerous and try- 
ing way across the plains, occupying three 
months in the trip, losing some of their num- 
ber by death on the way, among them being 
one of the Captain's children. They reached 
their destination on October 5, i860, and Mr. 
Budge located at Farmington, Utah, and gave 
attention to the development of his material 
interests, although by no means neglecting 
his church work. 

In the course of a few years he was or- 
dained a bishop of the church and changed 
his residence to the Cache Valley, where he 
engaged in farming and for six years was the 
assessor and tax collector of the county. 
Later he was sent abroad as president of the 
church in Europe, and for years filled this high 
office with signal ability and success. In 1870 
he came to Paris, Idaho, as the bishop of the 
Bear Lake stake, which embraced the territory 
of Bear Lake county, becoming also the gen- 
eral manager of the affairs of the church in 
the state, and under his wise and judicious ad- 
ministration during the many prosperous and 
eventful subsequent years they have greatly 
flourished. A splendid tabernacle, at a cost of 
$48,000, has been built under his supervision 
at Paris, and the Fielding Academy, an excel- 
lent educational institution, has been erected, 
equipped and started forward on its career 
of usefulness and benefaction at the same 
place. 

On two occasions the presence and influ- 
ence of President Budge have been of value to 
the church at the National capital, whither he 
went as the representative of his people who 
were threatened with disfranchisement, and to 
make an appeal to the Federal authorities in 



38 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



behalf of many who had been illegally prose- 
cuted. He was twice elected to the upper house 
of the territorial Legislature of Idaho and in 
1898 was elected to represent Bear Lake 
county in the state Senate, and in the bodies 
of which he was a member his services to his 
constituents were unremitting and of great 
value, and he was conspicuous for breadth of 
view, readiness in debate and fullness and ac- 
curacy of knowledge of affairs. 

President Budge has three wives, marry- 
ing the last one in 1868, and he is father of 
the following named children : Julia, wife of 
C. \V. Nibley, of Logan, Utah: Arthur, a 
prominent farmer and stockman; Annie, a 
bookkeeper; Rose, wife of J. R. Shepherd, of 
Paris; Alfred, of Paris, the present judge of 
the Fifth judicial district of Idaho; Isabel, 
wife of E. F. Davis, of Paris; Lizzie, wife of 
William Pendrey, of Paris; Ezra T., a prom- 
inent stockman of Bear Lake county: Oliver 
H.. a dentist, residing at Paris; David C. a 
physician and surgeon, residing at Logan, 
Utah ; Franklin, a dentist; Mary S.. wife of 
H. Smith Wooley, of Boise; Frances J., wife 
of H. C. Duffin, of Montpelier, Idaho: Edwin 
S.. a farmer, residing at Paris; Thomas, a 
physician and surgeon, residing at Logan, 
UJtah ; Jesse R. S., prosecuting attorney of 
Bear Lake county. Idaho; Gara, a clerk in 
Paris; Lillian, postmistress at Paris; Erne, 
Luella. Seth, Wallace, Alta. Scott and Jean, re- 
siding at home. 

When President Budge came to Bear Lake 
county it was essentially the frontier, sparsely 
settled, cold, bleak and barren, offering prac- 
tically no encouragement for speedy results 
of value. His life here has been that of a 
pioneer, and an encourager and counsellor of 
pioneers, and has been of multiform service 
in the development and improvement of the 
country. He has a pleasant home at Paris, 
and an excellent ranch near bv on which he 



raises cattle and farm products. In all the 
trials of his people President Budge has faith- 
fully stood by them, by his tact and influence 
silencing opposition and removing obstacles, 
and. when no storms were abroad, he has ljeen 
an inspiration and an incitement to them, a 
fatherly guide, a help and a quickening im- 
pulse. It is but just praise to say that he fully 
deserves the high place in their confidence and 
esteem which he so fullv enjoys. 

EDMOND BROWNING. 

Edmond Browning was born in Ogden. 
Utah, October 16, 1867, the son of James G. 
and Annie (Wood) Browning, the former born 
in Illinois and the latter in Manchester. Eng- 
land. They came to Utah in i860 and stopped 
at Ogden until their marriage, in 1862. When 
the subject was ten years of age his father died 
and he worked for a broom manufacturing 
company r at Ogden for two years and then 
moved, in May, 1884, to Cedar Butte. Idaho, 
where his mother took up a homestead and the 
subject assisted in clearing up the land. In the 
summer of 1887 he went to Bitter Root Val- 
ley and worked on a branch of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad on construction work. Then 
he returned to Cedar Butte and remained en- 
gaged in ranching until 1896, when he went to 
Iowa and worked on a ranch for one season. 
Then he returned to Annis, which was an off- 
spring of Cedar Butte, and has since remained 
here. In 1888 he took up a pre-emption claim 
and made of it a homestead, where his family 
has since resided. Mr. Browning married, on 
April 13, 1802, Elizabeth Wetzel, born Febru- 
ary 18, 1874. in West Virginia, daughter of 
G. W. and Mary E. Heninger. natives of West 
Virginia, who came to Utah when Elizabeth 
was seven years of age. They settled in Ogden 
Valley, but came to Sand Creek in the fall of 
T884. After three years there they sold and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



39 



moved to Butler's Island, and after changing 
again back to Sand Creek they moved to Idaho 
Falls, five years ago, where he is engaged in 
carrying mail from Idaho Falls to Poplar. The 
subject is a Mormon elder, having been or- 
dained in June, 1892, at La Belle, and at pres- 
ent is a teacher. Their children are as follows : 
Edmond, born August 8, 1893; Mary E., born 
June 19, 1895 ; Titia Ann, born January 25, 
1897, and Katie Arborilla, born November 23, 
1900. 

S. D. BATES. 

Born on July 4, 1861, at Wanship, Summit 
county, Utah, the son of English parents, John 
and Hannah ( Dracut) Bates, his father's birth 
occurring in 181 6, and, after passing some 
years in his native land, he came to> the United 
States, making his home in Pennsylvania and 
later in Utah, S. D. Bates is now maintaining 
his residence in Bingham county, industriously 
engaged in stockraising operations, and having 
some of the finest specimens of thoroughbred 
O. I. C. swine in this section of Idaho. The 
marriage of the parents occurred in. England, 
and, after their emigration from England and 
the residence in Pennsylvania heretofore men- 
tioned, the father and mother came to Utah in 
one of the Mormon migrations of 1859, cross- 
ing the plains with an ox train, their outfit con- 
sisting of an ox. a cow, a pony and a mule. 
They located their home in Summit county, 
Utah, on Weber River, and here, in an in- 
dustrious and eminently useful manner, this 
worthy couple passed the remainder of 
their days, the father being honored in 
the church, and, at the time of his death, 
which occurred in 1887, holding the of- 
fice of high priest. His faithful wife had 
long .preceded him to the tomb, her death tak- 
ing place at Coalville, Utah, on December 22, 
1864, at the age of forty-two years, being the 
mother of sixteen children. She was the 



daughter of John and Hannah Dracut, her fa- 
ther being a potter by trade and occupation, 
owning a large interest in several potteries of 
magnitude in England, where the parents al- 
ways resided. 

The early life of S. D. Bates was passed in 
attendance at the excellent schools of Summit 
county, and in becoming' versed in the methods 
and practical knowledge necessary to' success 
in the vocation he had selected as his life work. 
At the age of twenty-one years he engaged in 
farming on his own account in Summit count)', 
continuing to be thus employed for eight years, 
thereafter coming to Idaho in 1890, here lay- 
ing the foundation of his present prosperity by 
taking up a homestead of 160 acres of land, 
and commencing the initial operations of a 
business which was ultimately destined to be 
of scope and importance in the raising of su- 
perior breeds of stock, giving especial atten- 
tion to the development of a home that would 
combine not only completeness of convenience 
but the best adaptation procurable for the proper 
carrying on of 'his chosen departments of hus- 
bandry, and for the comfort of his fine herds 
of cattle, of swine and of horses, which clearly 
indicate, to even the most casual observer, that 
Mr. Bates is a man worthy of the reputation he 
enjoys among his associate stockmen. 

He is considered one oi the representative 
members of his class, a man who by his own 
industry, integrity and ability has raised him- 
self to a solid standing and enjoys an enviable 
position in the social and business circles of 
his county, while in the circles of his church he 
is most capable filling the office of elder, and is 
the popular and efficient superintendent of the 
Sunday school. On September 7, 1882, com- 
menced the wedded life of Mr. Bates, as on 
that date occurred his marriage with Miss 
Eliza McLing, a' native of Utah, and daughter 
of Dr. James and Emma McLing. Her father 
was born in Massachusetts on October 15, 1817, 



40 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF. BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



and, after qualifying' himself for the medical 
profession, he served efficiently as a United 
States surgeon in the Mexican war. after the 
war coming to Utah and locating in Coalville 
as a physician, later following medical practice 
at Wauship in Uinta county, where, on one of 
his journeys into the wilderness, he disap- 
peared and has never since been heard from, 
and it is supposed that he was murdered and 
his body securely hidden. 

His father, Jackson McLing, died in Ire- 
land, where he was probably born of Scottish 
ancestry, and received his name from Gen. 
Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Emma McLing was 
born in England on September i. 1845, and 
died at Washington, Utah, on April 21, 1885. 
She was the daughter of James and Mary 
(Hampson) Straw, her father being a native 
and lifelong resident of Sheffield, England, 
where he died in 1887; the mother, whose par- 
ents were James and Ann Hampson, was torn 
on August 18. 1807, and died on August 21, 
1889. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Bates are thus named : John S., Emma. Dan- 
iel H., Myrtle E., James H. (died Janu- 
uary 10, 1895), Joseph R., Ernest A. and 
Gladys S. 

Mrs. Eliza (McLing) Bates is a woman of 
more than ordinary abilities, one of the best 
types of the true womanhood of the West. She 
is an expert promologist and the beautiful or- 
chard on the estate, of which she takes espe- 
cial care, is well worth visiting. There are about 
five acres of various standard fruit trees now in 
bearing and about three acres of orchard three 
years old. She received the highest cash 
award, $3.50. offered by the state in 1900, for 
the best Wolf River apples, and in 1902 she 
received three cash prizes for the largest pears, 
best variety of prunes and Maiden's Blush ap- 
ples. She also displayed the best varietv of 
honey and in many ways Iris exhibited her 
ability and progressiveness. 



HERMAN BAUMAN. 

Man's usefulness in the world is judged by 
the good he has done, and, determined by this 
standard of measurement, Herman Bauman oc- 
cupies a position of distinction among the citi- 
zens of Bingham county, Idaho. His life has 
been industrious, upright and conscientious, 
over which falls no shadow of wrong, and he 
is distinctively one of the men whose memory 
will ever stand as one of the builders and illus- 
trators in the formation period of civilization 
in this section, being identified with its develop- 
ment from a wild frontier to prosperous civili- 
zation. He was born on December 28. 1850. 
in Sheboygan, Wis., whither his people had 
emigrated from Germanv a year previous. L)- 
cating as farmers in the then territory of Wis- 
consin, they there following agricultural opera- 
tions until their removal to Whitman county. 
Wash., where the father died in 1892 and the 
mother in 1896. They came from ancient I ier- 
man families and their names were Frederick 
and Anastatia ( Gottloeb) Bauman. 

Herman Bauman. who was one of a family 
of five children, became practically acquainted 
with farming in Sheboygan county and later 
learned the trade of blacksmithing, which he 
followed for a number of years in the cities of 
Milwaukee and Racine, coming to Idaho in 
1880 and locating in Fairview precinct, where 
he followed his trade with industry and suc- 
cess until about 1882, in the meantime taking 
up his present home ranch of 320 acres, located 
six miles northeast of Idaho Falls, and which 
he has improved from a dreary sagebrush wil- 
derness to a beautiful estate, sufficiently sup- 
plied and fitted with a pleasant residence of 
modern construction, barns, corrals and other 
improvements for successfully carrying on 
farming and stockraising, being successful in 
its irrigation through his connection with the 
Eagle Rock and Willow Creek Irrigation Com- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



4i 



panies, of which he was one of the original pro- 
moters, and from which he has received great 
value. 

On October 3, 1894, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Bauman and Miss Margaret Middlemas, 
a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, and a daugh- 
ter of Edward and Jane (Jackson) Middlemas, 
her father being a native of London, and run- 
ning away from home to come to the United 
States, on the voyage experiencing shipwreck 
at Prince Edward's Island, Canada, where he 
safely reached land and remained for eighteen 
months ; then going to Nova Scotia, he there 
for a time engaged in the fishing industry. Be- 
coming interested in the doctrines and belief of 
the Mormon church, he united his fortunes 
therewith, coming" to Utah in 1854 and taking 
a residence at Salt Lake City, where he re- 
mained until his death, in 1877, at the a §' e °f 
seventy years, he having been born on Sep- 
tember 6, 1807. Her mother was born in 
South Wales in 1841 ( and is still living at 
Glenns Ferry, Idaho, being the mother of nine 
children. Mrs. Bauman possesses great practi- 
cality and has been a capable and earnest assist- 
ant of her husband in his activities and both 
occupy substantial positions in the regard of 
the community. 

CHARLES M. BAUMGARTNER. 

To the land of the sunny South and the 
state of North Carolina must we go to visit the 
birthplace of Charles M. Baumgartner, now a 
prosperous stockman and rancher of Idaho, 
whose' rapidly improving and finely irrigated 
ranch is located two miles north of the village 
of Blackfoot. He is a son of Alexander and 
Matilda (Fisher) Baumgartner, his birth occur- 
ring on April 28. 1857, his father springing 
from old Colonial stock early established in 
North Carolina, where he was born in 18 13 
and passed his life as a farmer in the county 



of Clay, dying there on Christmas eve of 1891, 
at the age of seventy-eight years. During the 
latter years of the great Civil war he was a 
member of the Clay County Home Guards, 
being called into the Confederate service, in 
which he displayed great gallantry and 
courage. 

A stalwart Democrat in politics, he was 
prominent in public affairs and held with great 
acceptability, and for a long term of years, the 
offices of justice of the peace and county com- 
missioner. Like his father before him, he was 
an active, an energetic and a liberal member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a 
son of Charles Baumgartner, also a native of 
North Carolina, and one of the first settlers on 
Tar River, in Lincoln county, in the eastern 
portion of the state, where he quite prominently 
participated in the development and the public 
affairs of the county, also doing military serv- 
ice in the Cherokee war. His wife, Rebecca 
Odem, attained the remarkable longevity of 
ninety-six years of life. 

The mother of Mr. Baumgartner, also a 
native of North Carolina, was born in 18 15, a 
daughter of James Fisher, another representa- 
tive of one of the old Colonial families of the 
state. Her marriage union with Alexander 
Baumgartner resulted in the birth of seven 
children: John (deceased), Rebecca, James, 
Charles, Bascom (deceased), George and Wil- 
liam. All of these good people served their 
day and generation well and have passed on 
through the gates of death to those activities 
that know no weariness. 

Charles M. Baumgartner after acquiring 
an excellent education in North Carolina en- 
gaged in pedagogic work in Georgia, thereafter 
being engaged in traveling for nurserymen, 
selling trees and nursery stock in Georgia 
for a period of three years, thence com- 
ing west to Idaho and locating in the 
Lemhi Valley in 1884. In the spring of 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1883 Mr. Baumgartner, accompanied by 
his , brothers, James and George, came to 
the Snake River country and took up all of 
the land between the present estate of Charles 
M. Baumgartner and the Snake River bridge, 
comprising a tract of 900 acres, having a west 
frontage of two and one-half miles. They were 
here in partnership association in the raising of 
fine Durham cattle until 1895. Since that time 
C. M. Baumgartner has devoted the most 
of his attention to horses, having now a fine 
stock of Norman Percherons and some credit- 
able trotting stock. 

Mr. Baumgartner has a valuable estate of 
320 acres of land, and has been prospered in 
his efforts and enjoys an extended acquaintance 
with the prominent people, not only of this sec- 
tion of the state, but of a larger area, arising 
from his great personal efforts in the settling 
of the county, and also from his connection 
with the United States Indian Department, 
where he has been an industrious and success- 
ful teacher in the Indian school, and from his 
later occupation at the Fort Hall agency, 
where he was engaged in police work for 
about two years. During all this time he was 
successfully managing his ranch and personal 
affairs. He is a stalwart and active Democrat, 
his influence being known and felt in every 
campaign of the party, and he is fraternally 
connected with the Masonic lodge of Black- 
foot. 

O11 March 22, 1897. occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Baumgartner with Miss Emma McPher- 
son, a daughter of John H. and Marie (Cal- 
vert) McPherson, both of whom were born in 
Ohio, being of ancient English and Scotch ori- 
gin. Mrs. Baumgartner was born in Pleason- 
ton, Athens county. Ohio, on March 22, 1867, 
and her early education in the schools of her 
native town was supplemented by an attend- 
ance at Ada, where she also took a special 
course in music, and by an attendance of one 



term at the high school of Jackson, Ohio. She 
came to Idaho in 1883 ; her father is still living 
in Athens county, Ohio, at seventy-six years of 
age. Mr. and Mrs. Baumgartner have three 

children. Marguerite, Grady and Helen, and 
the family occupy a high position in social cir- 
cles in this locality. 

WILLIAM M. BEATTIE. 

One of the residents of Fremont county. 
Idaho, who has been connected with much of 
pioneer life in different localities of the West 
and ever proved himself equal to any emer- 
gency which has confronted him, steadily forg- 
ing ahead through his energetic efforts to the 
accomplishment of his purposes, William M. 
Beattie was one of the early settlers at Inde- 
pendence, where he is engaged in agricultural 
and stockraising operations of scope and im- 
portance, being prospered in his undertakings 
and being one of the leading fanners of his 
section of the county. He was torn on Septem- 
ber 15, 1861, at Provo, Utah, a son of William 
M. and Caroline (Hubbard) Beattie. natives of 
Michigan, who crossed the plains at an early 
day and made their home at Provo. the father 
being there engaged in freighting . for four 
years, then going to California, from whence 
he never returned. 

From his fifteenth year Mr. Beattie of this 
review was his own dictator and master, and 
he commanded life's activities for himself by 
working on a ranch for two years. Then pro- 
ceeding to Tombstone. Ariz., he was active 
in freighting operations and in railroad con- 
struction work for a period of time, subse- 
quently returning to Utah where he was con- 
nected with various industries for three years. 
He then came to his present location at 
Independence, located on an available and eli- 
gibly located quarter-section of government 
land, to which he has since given his diligent 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



43 



and effective endeavors in the work of procur- 
ing water and the reclamation and improvement 
of the land, which he has accomplished in 
an extensive degree, having now one of the 
favored estates of the vicinity, bounteous crops 
annually repaying his toil. Mr. Beattie aided 
in building all of the irrigating canals in the 
neighborhood of Rexburg, and the Texas 
Slough Canal, holding a place in the director- 
ate of these companies. In political relations 
he is an earnest and active member of the Re- 
publican party, supporting its policies and its 
candidates in its campaigns and at the polls, 
while in the Church of Jesus Christ of- Latter 
Day Saints he is very efficiently serving in the 
important office of elder. 

At Grantsville, Utah, on November 22, 
1880, Mr. Beattie and Miss Rhoda A. Watson 
were united in marriage, her parents being na- 
tives of England, who endured the terrible ex- 
periences of crossing the plains in one of the 
perilous years of the immigration into Utah as 
members of a handcart brigade, and to this un- 
ion has come a family of ten children, William 
M., Hattie M. (died at eleven years of age), 
Henry W., Eunice M., Rhoda S., Thomas E., 
Seth G., Edith L., Emma I. and Frank H. 

GORDON S. BECKSTEAD. 

The late Gordon S. Beckstead, of Preston, 
Idaho, whose death on January 31, 1890, on his 
well-improved and valuable ranch, located a 
mile and a half southeast from the center of the 
town, closed a long and useful life, the last ten 
years of which were passed in that community, 
was a native of Canada, born there on Novem- 
ber 25, 1825. His parents were Alexander and 
Catherine (Lince) Beckstead, like himself na- 
tives O'f the Dominion, who came to Utah in the 
early days, and, settling on the West Jordan 
River, they became prosperous farmers and re- 
mained in that section of the territory until 



death called them from all their earthly labors. 
The father died on February 20, 1870, and the 
mother on November 12, 1889. They were 
buried side by side near the scenes of their trials 
and triumphs in this new country. 

Their son, Gordon S. Beckstead, reached 
man's estate on the parental farm and finished 
a limited education, which had been begun in 
those of his native land, at the schools of the 
neighborhood. In the early sixties he removed 
to Brigham City and located there land on 
which he was engaged in farming until 1883, 
when he sold his interests in Utah and came to 
reside at Preston. Here he bought the ranch 
which is now the home of his family, and lived 
upon it, there conducting a flourishing and prof- 
itable farming and stock business until his 
death. 

While living at Brigham City, Utah, on 
November 22, 1867, he married with his last 
wife, Miss Susan Luckham, a native of Utah, 
and a daughter of Roger and Mary (Gard- 
ner) Luckham, whose father was one of the 
early settlers in Salt Lake county in that state, 
where he was successfully engaged in farming 
to the close of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Beck- 
stead had seven children, Roger A. ; Francis ; 
Mary, wife of Harry Herbert ; Eugene ; Robert ; 
Roy H. ; William L. The three youngest sons 
carry on the farm for their mother, and Roger 
has a farm near Preston, where he resides, while 
Francis and Eugene have farms at Glendale, 
five miles north of Preston, where they are con- 
ducting profitable farming and stock industries. 

Mr. Beckstead was one of the leading citi- 
zens of the community. He was always at the 
front in public enterprises of value, and was es- 
teemed as a far-seeing and progressive man of 
enterprise and public spirit. Since his death 
his widow has managed the business and con- 
ducted the farm with the same energy that he 
displayed and applied to its affairs the excel- 
lent judgment, industry and common-sense for 



44 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BAXXOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



which she is noted. With the courage and re- 
sourcefulness characteristic of the western 
woman of the frontier, she has taken hold of 
the affairs of the estate and pushed forward all 
its interests to good and profitable results. To 
the esteem in which she is held in social circles 
her vigor and success in business have added 
a high opinion of her worth and capability as 
a woman of executive faculties. 

MRS. EMELINE G. RICH. 

In the subjugation of and the reducing to 
civilization of the primitive conditions of the 
Great West all of the efforts of man would 
have been futile had not woman given her en- 
couragement, her aid and her versatile ener- 
gies to asist the stronger sex. What the pio- 
neer men have accomplished is an oft-told 
tale : what the pioneer women endured, suf- 
fered, sacrificed, and the results of her indefat- 
igable labors have not been often blazoned in 
story nor to but a slight extent are they visible 
on the 'pages of history. These reflections 
come to mind when considering the eventful 
and useful life of Mrs. Emeline (Grover) Rich, 
who, in the fullness of life's achievements, ever 
loyally and faithfully performed, is now resid- 
ing at Paris. Bear Lake county. Idaho, secure 
in the love and esteem of a large circle of 
friends and receiving the veneration, attention 
and care of loving children and grandchildren. 

The mission of such a compilation as this 
is amply justified when it preserves for genera- 
tions to come the record of such a life as hers 
and with pleasure we devote ourselves to this 
duty. As her life was intimately connected 
with one of the great men of the Church of 
Latter Day Saints, it may be well to here trace 
his record in brief that a fitting light may be 
cast upon the story we would tell. 

President Charles C. Rich was born in 
Campbell county. Ky.. on August 31. 1809, a 



son to the marriage of Joseph and Nancy 
'(O'Neal) Rich, who were also natives of the 
Blue Grass state, of ancestry going back 
through Virginia to England and Ireland. 
They were early emmigrants and farmers of 
Utah, where the mother died in Salt Lake City 
in October. 1847, and the father in November, 
1856, at Paris, Idaho. Possessing a stalwart 
physical organization, and strong and brilliant 
mental abilities. Mr. Rich early became a 
forceful factor in the Mormon church, to 
whose interests he contributed the most of his 
active life. One of the apostles of the church, 
he came to Utah with the first company of 
pioneers in 1847, in 1840 and 185 1 located a 
colony at San Bernardino, California, there- 
after for four vears being extensively in 
mission work. In 1863 he explored the Bear 
Lake Valley and was the president of the col- 
ony he here established in June. 1864. holding 
that office until the creation of the stake in 
1872. His death occurred on November 17, 
1884. For a fuller account of this remarkable 
man see a fuller sketch elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. 

Mrs. Emeline (Grover) Rich, who was 
united in marriage with President Rich, on 
February 2. 1846, at Nauvoo. 111., was born on 
July 30. 183 1, in Freedom. Cattaraugus 
county. X. Y.. the daughter of pioneer settlers 
of the Holland Purchase, Thomas and Caro- 
line (Whiting) Grover. her father being a na- 
tive of Xew York and the mother of Vermont. 
They were good types of the intelligent, 
thrifty, moral and industrious pioneers of 
western New York, and the doctrines of the 
Mormon church, as expounded by its able mis- 
sionaries, took deep root in their hearts, and 
they consecrated their remaining years to its 
service, emigrating from New York to Kirt- 
land. Ohio, and early joining the assembled 
saints at Nauvoo, 111., where the father was 
chosen as a member of the 1>odv guard of 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



47 



Joseph Smith, in which capacity the sad duty 
devolved upon him to assist in the funeral rites 
of the murdered founder of the faith. 

In such surroundings and amid experiences 
of strange and vital importance the young girl 
rapidly attained a knowledge and self-reliance 
far beyond her years, suffering - in those crucial 
days the deprivation of a mother's care 
through her death at Nauvoo in 1841, leaving 
the daughter an orphan at the age of ten 
years. Handsome, keen of intellect, and 
possessed of great mental and physical vitality, 
she was at the time of her marriage a woman 
of full maturity, though not yet fifteen years 
of age, and a fitting mate for the strong man 
who became her husband, and to whom she 
rendered most loyal allegiance all the days of 
his life. Her father became one of the first 
high counsellors .of the church, and with her 
husband had a place in the first company com- 
ing to Utah in 1847. Mrs. Rich and the other 
members of her father's family made the 
journey later in the same year, she being then 
but sixteen years of age, and on the perilous 
overland way, and for many years thereafter, 
suffering many and severe hardships, priva- 
tions and harrowing experiences, being often- 
times in peril from hostile Indians, sometimes 
destitute of food, save wild herbs and roots, and 
sometimes suffering- from severity of climate. 

Mrs. Rich accompanied her husband in 
man)' of his travels in new lands, bore him 
eight children, and with him became a pioneer 
of the Bear Lake Valley, when nature here 
showed its most rugged mood, and for near- 
ly forty years she has been an integral element 
of this community, known and loved by all, 
ever maintaining by her daily life and char- 
acter the evidence of that true righteousness 
that gilds refined gold, and now, in the even- 
ing twilight of an eminently productive earthly 
existence, she is patiently waiting for the com- 
ing of the messenger of immortality. For 



many years Mrs. Rich was the highly valued 
physician of, not only the Bear River colony, 
but of a much wider area, continuing faithful, 
successful and appreciated labors in this line 
until the advent and settlement of regxdar 
physicians in the communitv. A brief record 
of her children follows: Thomas G.. born in 
Centerville, Utah, on December 30, 1849; 
Caroline W., born at San Bernardino. Calif., 
on January 22, 1852; Nancy E., torn at San 
Bernardino, Calif., on Feb. 19, 1854: Landon 
J., born at Centerville, Utah, on March 11, 
1857; Samuel J., born at Centerville, Utah, 
on May 1, i860; Heber C. C, born at Center- 
ville on August 8, 1863 ; Joel H, born at Lo- 
gan, Utah, on October 17, 1865; George S., 
born at Paris, Idaho, on March 17, 1869. All 
of the seven living children, except George, 
who lives at Logan. Utah, are residents of 
Idaho, standing high among its citizens. 

ASA W. BELKNAP. 

Whatever tends to promote the well-being 
of his fellows and the permanent welfare of his 
community and church are matters of deep in- 
terest to Asa W. Belknap, the gentleman whose 
name heads this review, and his influence and 
means are freely used in religious causes. He 
is a true son of the West, as his whole life has 
been passed amid its primitive scenes and ac- 
tivities, and none of his inhabitants are more 
genuinely concerned in its prosperity and high 
standing. He possesses the energetic, progres- 
sive spirit which always brings success, and the 
patriotism and high sense of religious duty 
which mark the representative, broad-minded 
citizen. He was born on March 25, i860, at 
Ogden, Utah, a son of Gilbert and Adaline 
(Knight) Belknap, his father's birth occurring 
at Port Hope in the province of Ontario, Can- 
ada, and coming to the United States when a 
young 1 man and becoming a resident of Illinois 



48 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



for many years, whence he crossed the plains 
with an ox team in a body of his fellow Mor- 
mons, locating in Ogden, Utah, there following 
farming principally until 1869, when he made 
his residence in Hooper, where, at the age of 
seventy-seven years, his earthly career was 
closed in 1900. 

Gilbert Belknap was a man of more than or- 
dinary ability and executive powers, holding a 
number of offices as a consistent Democrat, 
among them being those of selectman, assessor 
and collector, prosecuting attorney and sheriff. 
He was held in high regard in the Mormon 
church for his deeply religious character and • 
mental powers, and held with great ability the 
distinguished position of bishop of Hoper 
ward. His parents were Roselle and Jane 
( Richmond) Belknap, and his wife, whom he 
married in Kirtland, Ohio, was a native of the 
state of New York. She accompanied her hus- 
band to Utah, where she is now passing the 
evening of her eminently useful life at Hooper, 
Utah, having more than rounded out the allot- 
ted three score and ten years of life. She was a 
daughter of Vincent and Martha ( McBride) 
Knight, her father dying at Nauvoo, 111., and 
her mother coming to Utah, being the mother 
of thirteen children, and making her permanent 
home at Hooper. Utah, where her death oc- 
curred. 

Mr. Belknap, after a thoroughly practical 
education at the public schools and parental 
homestead of his parents, identified himself 
with his father's operations until he attained 
the age of twenty-six years, then, becoming a 
farmer on his own account, he continued to- fol- 
low this employment with satisfactory results 
until 1888, when he removed his home to Fre- 
mont county, here becoming a pioneer settler 
of Salem, where he took up a homestead of 
160 acres, which year by year he has seen de- 
velop, as the logical result of his indefatigable 
energy and unremitting labor, into a substan- 



tial and valuable farm, suitably improved, with 
proper irrigation, having a convenient residence 
and suitable outbuildings to satisfy the de- 
mands of the exacting departments of agricul- 
tural life of which this is the animated head- 
quarters. 

Mr. Belknap has given great attention and 
much thought to the problem of irrigation, and 
the success of the system operating in this sec- 
tion is largely due to his untiring efforts, and 
he has held the office of president of the Salem 
Union Canal Co. nearly all of the time 
since its organization. In political rela- 
tions he is aligned with the Democratic 
party, in which he thoroughly believes. 
On November 3, i8<)6. he was selected 
justice of the peace, and he was re-elected 
in 1898. but his private interests demand 
so much of his time that he leaves the 
seeking of office entirelv to others. In his 
church his activity is much in evidence, and he 
has held the place of alternate member of the 
high council for a term of years with conceded 
ability, and in 1891 he was chosen second coun- 
sellor to Bishop Harris, from which he was re- 
leased in 1900 and chosen to his present posi 
tion, being held in high esteem by his religious 
associates. 

On April 21, 1886, Miss Mary Read, a na- 
tive of Utah, and a daughter of Thomas and 
Jane (Rawley) Read, early pioneers of Mason 
county, Utah, became the wife of Mr. Belknap 
and to this union have come a bright, intelligent 
family of children, as follows : Augustus R., 
Charles YV., Thomas G., deceased. George. 
Earl, John, deceased. Joseph F., Ezra L. and 
Elmer D. 

WILLIAM A. BELL. 

A (|iiiet, diligent, hardworking citizen of 
Rexburg, Idaho, where he is conducting one 
of the leading blacksmith shops of Fremont 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



49 



county, William A. Bell, the subject of this bio- 
graphical mention, was born on April 7, i860, 
at Lehi, Utah, a son of William M. and Martha 
K. (Benson) Bell, the father being a native of 
the state of Ohio, who, early in life embracing 
the doctrines of the new revelation to Joseph 
Smith, cast in his lot with the people of Zion, 
crossing the plains to Utah in 1852, the mother 
having her birth in the intelligent little king- 
dom of Denmark, and crossing the plains in 
1855 to Utah, where she met and married the 
father, who was then a carpenter of Lehi, where 
the family home was thereafter maintained for 
many years. The mother's death occurred at 
Newton, Cache county, Utah, about 1879, after 
which sad event the father, in 1884, removed 
to Rexburg, where he now resides. 

It was in 1876 that William A. Bell started 
to work for himself, coming direct from Lehi 
to the Cache Valley of Utah in 1869, where 
he was there associated in carpentry with his 
father for three years, thence making his home 
in Beaver Canyon, Idaho, for several years, be- 
ing engaged in milling operations. Then he 
came to the upper valley of the Snake River of 
Idaho, arriving at Rexburg in 1883, as one of 
the veritable pioneer class. Here he was em- 
ployed in various occupations until 1888, and 
early in 1889 he established blacksmithing op- 
erations in Rexburg and he has there conducted 
the business from that time until the present 
writing, having a large and representative pat- 
ronage of well-pleased citizens, being pros- 
pered in his diligent industry, in connection 
with his own labor employing - two assistants in 
blacksmithing" and wagon work. Although of 
so retiring a nature that he does not affiliate 
with any political or religious sect or organiza- 
tion, and will not suffer his name to be placed 
in candidacy for any political office, Mr. Bell is 
a generous contributor to all things tending to 
advance the prosperity of the community or 
welfare of the people and has a large circle of 
sterline friends. 



The children of Mr. Bell by his marriage, 
on December 25, 1889, to Miss Harriet A. 
Rowberry, a daughter of Thomas and Harriet 
(Hall) Rowberry, natives of England, are as 
follows: Harriet A., born on December 1, 
1891 ; William V., born on February 7, 1895 ; 
Alfred, born on November 4, 1896 ; Orville 
M., born on May 30, 1899; Sibyl L., born on 
October 7. 1901. 

GEORGE T. BENSON. 

For nearly twenty years a resident of 
Oneida county, and during all but ten of them 
being the bishop of the Whitney ward in the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, George T. Ben- 
son, of Whitney, Idaho, has been a large and 
important contributor to the growth and devel- 
opment of the county ; and although his church 
work has had precedence over everything else, 
he has shown himself to be also a progressive 
man in business and a leader of thought in pub- 
lic affairs. His parents were Ezra T. and Ade- 
lina B. (Andrus) Benson, natives of Connecti- 
cut, who were converted to the Mormon faith 
soon after 1840 in their native state, whence 
they soon afterward emigrated separately to 
NauvoO', 111., where they were married not long 
after their arrival. 

Making their home at Nauvoo until the 
spring of 1846, they then joined the first com- 
pany of their faith to make the long and trying 
trip across the plains to the new home of the 
church on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. 
While on this trip they halted at Garden Grove, 
Iowa, and there, on May 1, 1846, their son, 
George T. Benson, was born. From that place 
the father proceeded to the new country and 
was one of the first 128 men who arrived at and 
occupied the site of the permanent Zion of the 
church, then the dream of the faithful, now the 
established result of their labors and the mag- 
nificent center of its power. The mother came 
over "the plains across" with a later train and 



5° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



with her infant in her arms reached her desti- 
nation in October. 

Taking up land for a home, the}' engaged 
in farming, and later the father built grist and 
sawmills in the Tooele Valley, nor far from the 
prospective city of Salt Lake, which he oper- 
ated for a number of years, always, however, 
making his home in the city. From the time of 
his conversion to Mormonism he has been ac- 
tive and zealous in its work. He was ordained 
an apostle in 1848 at Winter Quarters, and was 
long one of the principal men of the organiza- 
tion in Utah. In i860 he moved to Logan, be- 
ing one of the first settlers at that place, and 
was called to preside over the Cache Valley 
church organizations as an apostle. From that 
time he has devoted the greater part of his life 
to church work, but he has also had business in- 
terests, and owned and farmed land at Logan. 

In partnership with H. Thatcher, he built 
the first gristmill in the Cache Valley, and, un- 
der the firm name of Thatcher & Benson, he 
aided in conducting it vigorously and profitably 
for a number nf years, being connected with the 
enterprise at the time of his death on Septem- 
ber 1, 1869. His widow survived him for 
thirty years, passing away on April 20. 1899, 
and their remains are buried side by side at 
Logan. 

Their son, George T. Benson, attended 
school at Salt Lake in his boyhood and earlv 
youth, and. after removing with his parents to 
Logan at the age of sixteen, he there finished 
his education with such facilities as were at- 
tainable. He then worked with his father on 
the farm until his marriage in 1867, when he 
began farming for himself near Logan, ex- 
pecting to always make that place his home. 
But. in July. 1884, he was called to be coun- 
sellor to Bishop Parkinson of the Preston 
ward, and at once removed to that town, where 
he bought land two and one-half miles east of 
the town and again engaged in farming. Here 
he has since made his home. He continued to 



serve Bishop Parkinson as counsellor until 
1889, when Whitney ward was set apart. He 
was then made counsellor to Bishop Chadwic!* 
of that ward, and when Bishop Chadwick re- 
tired in 1893 Mr. Benson was ordained as his 
successor. 

He is still in the active discharge of his du- 
ties as bishop of this ward, and under his man- 
agement the affairs of the church in this terri- 
u iry have been thriving and prosperous. He is 
well fitted by nature and attainments for his po- 
sition, and is beloved by every person in the 
ward, which is three miles square and contains 
a population of sixty-two families and 350 per- 
sons. On December 20, 1867, Mr. Benson 
married with Miss Louisa Ballif. a native of 
Switzerland, the daughter of Serge L. and 
Elise (Lecoultre) Ballif. of the same nativity 
as herself. The marriage was solemnized at 
Salt Lake City. 

Mrs. Benson's parents became converts to 
the Mormon faith in their native land and came 
to America in 1854. making their way by the 
usual route and means to Utah and settling at 
Salt Lake, where they remained until i860. 
They then removed to Logan, being among the 
first settlers at that place, where the mother died 
on May 13, 1S72. and the father continued to 
be engaged in farming operations until his 
death on April 20, 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Ben- 
son have had thirteen children. Louisa: Ezra 
T., who died on August 2S. 1871. aged three 
weeks: Elise: George T. : Serge B. : Adeline 
and Florence (twins); William K., who died on 
February 28. 1882. aged three weeks: Frank 
T. : Marie, who died on March 6. 1891. aged 
four years and seven months: Carmen: Jenny: 
and Kathinka. 

CHARLES H. BERETT. 

The sturdy and industrious English citizens 
that are thickly scattered in the West and 
Northwest have proved to be the best possible 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5* 



material in its civilization, and decidedly im- 
portant factors in furthering the substantial de- 
velopment and improvement of the country. 
Strong!)' appreciative of practical values, and 
possessed of that sterling honesty so character- 
istic of Great Britain, there is a justifiable pride 
in tracing one's lineage to such a region, and 
Mr. Charles H. Berett has not failed to display 
the strongest and best traits of English char- 
acter in the land of his adoption', while he is 
essentially American in his progressive meth- 
ods, and loyal to our institutions. He is not 
only a representative Englishman of the better 
class, but he is also prominently entitled to the 
designation of an American pioneer, since he 
has been connected with the primitive period 
of life in many points of the far West, his ca- 
reer at all times and in all places being one of 
consecutive application and of unquestionable 
integrity. 

Mr. Berett was born at Stepleashton, Wilt- 
shire, England, on December 25, 1837, a son 
of Robert and Sarah (Griffin) Berett, coming 
as a child of twelve years with his parents to 
Salt Lake City, his boyish enthusiasm heartily 
enjoying and his memory retaining the novel 
sights and experiences met with on the way. 
At that time the plains were a stamping - ground 
of thousands of buffalo, the vast herds stretch- 
ing as far as the eye could reach. Robert Be- 
rett was orphaned at the early age of seven 
years, when his father fell out of a tree while 
gathering apples and was killed, consequently 
very little of the ancestral history has been pre- 
served. It 'was the desire of his parents to 1 have 
the unrestricted enjoyment of the privileges of 
die Mormon church, and this led to their emi- 
gration, and their subsequent settlement as 
farmers in Utah, where the father died in 1872, 
at North Ogden, at the age of seventy-seven 
years, at that time holding the position of high 
priest in his church. The mother was not 
spared to reach the ultimate of her desires, as 



she died on the road to Utah, and was buried 
on the banks of the Missouri River, a 
little above the city of St. Joseph. Of 
her ten children, Mr. Berett is the sixth 
in order of birth, and five of them are 
now living'. Being deprived of a mother's 
care at an early age, Mr. Berett was 
thrown upon his own responsibilities at an age 
when many are receiving the care and attention 
so needful for the perfect development of the 
child at that period of life. He was not more 
than fifteen years old when he pushed out into 
the wilds of the Indian country, and from that 
time was the master of his own life, and the 
creator of his own fortunes. He was pre-em- 
inently a pioneer of this section of Idaho, as he 
came hither in the fall of 1852, passing his first 
winter at Salmon River, the next winter at 
Ft. Bridger, Wyo., while the two next winters 
were passed in Spokane, Wash. At that time 
there was little to indicate the degree of civil- ■ 
ized prosperity which was possible in this sec- 
tion, and which is now shown in many lively- 
settlements, numerous cultivated farms, and 
the vast herds of horses, cattle and sheep that 
are running on its ranches. Subsequently to 
his Spokane residence Mr. Berett was at the 
Dalles, on Columbia River in Oregon, thence 
proceeding to- Walla Walla, Wash., previously,, 
however, serving as a volunteer soldier against 
the hostile Indians under Captain Higgins 
in the war which had its scene of opera- 
tion at that locality. , In 1862 he returned 
to Utah, making his home at North Og- 
den for a few years, then becoming one 
of the earliest pioneers of the Bear Lake 
section of Idaho, where he remained for 
two years. The attractions of North Og- 
den, however, again drew him thither, and 
there he engaged in farming operations which 
were uninterruptedly conducted for a period of 
thirty years, prosperity attending his operations, 
and he enjoying a high degree of confidence in 



52 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the community. In 1890 Mr. Berett came to 
Bingham county, Idaho, where he purchased 
one of the most desirable ranches on Willow 
Creek, it being situated eight miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls and containing 320 acres of most 
desirable land, and from that time to the pres- 
ent he has devoted himself to the development 
of his property, having, however, sold all but 
the eighty acres on which he now makes his 
home. His improvements are of a solid char- 
acter, consisting of a fine brick residence of 
modern style, structure and equipments, to- 
gether with suitable barns, corrals, etc.. neces- 
sary to the proper carrying on of his specialties 
in husbandry, one of the most prominent of 
which is dairying. He takes great pride in his 
herd of cows, and the butter from his dairy has 
an enviable reputation. His herd of horses is 
extensive and of fine quality, while in horticul- 
ture his labors have resulted in the production 
of a beautiful orchard, which, although not yet 
fully developed, promises to be one of the nota- 
ble ones of the country. A man of intelligence, 
of original ideas and marked acumen, he takes 
great interest in public affairs of a local nature, 
and heartily indorses the principles and policies 
of the Republican party. 

On Christmas clay, 1862, occurred the wed- 
ding ceremonies uniting Mr. Berett with Miss 
Melissa Titus, a daughter of John and Abigail 
(Campbell) Titus, both of whom were natives 
of Pennsylvania; the death of the mother, how- 
ever, occurred in 1899 at Willow Creek, Ida- 
ho. Mr. and Mrs. Berett are the parents of one 
child, Ida A., now Mrs. William Poll. What- 
ever Mr. Berett has acquired is the result of his 
own thrift, energy and business capacity, while 
in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the 
people he has been one of the first to assist in 
promoting any good enterprise, and in conse- 
quence of this disposition and his genial man- 
ner, tog-ether with his general worth and useful- 
ness, he is a man highly esteemed. Mr. Berett 



in the Indian wars served under Governor 
Stevens, the first governor of Oregon. At one 
time Mr. Berett, in company with five others 
with a pack train on the emigrant road east of 
Boise, at the point where the road strikes the 
Boise River, came upon an emigrant train of 
three wagons and found three men of the emi- 
grants killed, only a boy and man being left. 
Ten miles farther down the river they discov- 
ered another train of six wagons. All of the 
emigrant party were killed except two boys be- 
tween nine and fourteen years of age. All of 
these survivors with one boy, who came to the 
party seven days later, were brought to civili- 
zation and restored to their friends by Mr. Be- 
rett's party. Mr. Berett acted as both doctor 
and nurse. This trip occurred before his going 
to Spokane. One boy came in seven days later 
and the subject acted as doctor for him. 

JAMES A. BERRY. 

A type of manhood in which the best quali 
ties of American citizenship are exemplified, in- 
dustry, probity, integrity and faithful discharge 
of every duty, civil or ecclesiastical, being 
among the number, James A. Berry, of near 
Rexburg, Idaho, well maintains a popular posi- 
tion in the society of his locality and is one of 
the reliable and useful citizens of the county. 
He was born on August 6, 1854, at Bristol, 
England, a son of James B. and Julia ( Allen) 
Berry, natives of England, where the father 
served an apprenticeship of seven years at bas- 
ketmaking, thereafter for two years being the 
foreman and manager of the factory. His 
death occurred at Bristol, England, on Christ- 
mas day, 1870, at the early age of thirty-eight 
years. The mother brought her family to Utah 
in 1872, and is now residing at Salt Lake City, 
for her unostentatious religious character hav- 
ing the warm friendship of a large number of 
friends. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



53 



James A. Berry commenced life for himself 
at the age of sixteen years a strong, vigorous 
young man, by engaging in construction work 
on the Utah Northern Railroad, after five years 
becoming the foreman of a construction gang, 
and his discriminating and capable methods 
were such that he held this difficult position for 
fifteen years in Utah. In 1883, being desirous 
of a freer life and a change of vocation, he came 
to the Snake River Valley and took up a home- 
stead of 160 acres of land in the near neigh- 
borhood of the Rexburg townsite, which he 
cleared, developed, irrigated and put into the 
highly improved condition in which it is seen 
today, selling thirty acres of it in 1887 to 
George Beams, his brother-in-law, on the re- 
mainder carrying on diversified farming and 
also stockraising to some extent, prosperity 
having accompanied his exertions. 

A forceful factor in the bringing of water 
to the arid soil through the means of irrigating 
canals, he was one of the number who built the . 
first canal, is a stockholder and has been a di- 
rector in the Teton Island Irrigation Canal Co., 
being for the last two years its secretary and 
treasurer. In the Mormon church, of which 
from early life he has been a consistent mem- 
ber, he has held the presidency of the Young 
Men's Mutual Improvement Association of 
Island ward from the establishment of the 
ward, and is also a member of the Eighty- 
fourth Quorum of Seventies. 

Mr. Berry is an unswerving Republican 
and has been a delegate to ever)' county con- 
vention of his party since Fremont county was 
organized; he held the office of justice of the 
peace from 1882 to 1886 and for the past eight 
years he has held a commission as a notary pub- 
lic, and has received a third commission from 
Governor Morrison. 

Mr. Berry has been twice married, first on 
June 12, 1876, to Miss Elizabeth G. Doul, who 
died on November 15, 1880, the mother of 



these children: James T. died on March 19, 
1878, aged one year; Albert C, also deceased; 
Elizabeth J., born May 15, 1879. On October 
26, 1882, at Salt Lake City, Mr. Berry wedded 
Miss Jane Christie, a native of London, Eng- 
land, who accompanied her parents to Ogden, 
Utah, in 1873, the father being a traveling 
dealer in drygoods and conducting this trade 
until shortly before his death, which occurred 
at Ogden, in 1884, at the age of sixty years, the 
mother now residing at Ogden, having- attained 
sixty-two years of always diligent and useful 
life. The children of this second marriage of 
Mr. Berry are: Arthur F., born April 20. 
1884; May B., born May 18, 1886; Charles C, 
born May n, 1888; Rosalind, born July 20. 
1891 ; Earl C, born February 26, 1899. 

ELIJAH BINGHAM. 

While personally a most unostentatious citi- 
zen. Mr. Elijah Bingham is well known in 
many sections of the far West as a man of ad- 
vanced thought, clear foresight and resolute 
and tenacious purpose, and also as possessing 
the highest sagacity, ingenuity and firmness in 
overcoming - obstacles in the way of his enter- 
prises, and he is noted for having held his own, 
single-handed, in undertaking where weaker 
men would have failed. It is well recognized 
that his successes have not come from luck or 
chance, but have been the direct results of his 
own ability, integrity and unceasing- persever- 
ance. This representative ranchman of the vi- 
cinity of Blackfoot, Bingham county, Idaho, is 
a son of the West, native to its soil, since he was 
born at Og'den, Utah, on January 2, 1862, a son 
of Willard and Jeannette (Gates) Bingham, na- 
tives of Vermont, but of original Dutch de- 
scent, their early ancestors making their 
homes for many generations in the ancient 
Fatherland. 

In 1836 his parents became interested in 



54 



PROGRESSIVE ME A' OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



and converts to the Mormon religion, being 
numbered among the very early adherents to 
that faith, and the}- were connected with its 
various movements and suffered from its perse- 
cution, migrating from Kirtland, Ohio, to Mis- 
souri and Nauvoo. 111., from the latter city join- 
ing in the exodus after the death of the la- 
mented prophet, and, in one of the first com- 
panies, crossing the plains with ox teams to the 
new lands of the Great Salt Lake country, there 
locating at what later became the thriving city 
of Ogden. Here the father engaged in lumber- 
ing operations until 1849, when he joined the 
heroic band that settled California, placed 
American civilization in that new country and 
enriched themselves by taking out the gold 
which the beds of its streams contained in al- 
most fabulous quantities. 

His industry for the three years he there 
remained brought him a rich reward, and he 
returned to his home at Ogden, thereafter be- 
coming a prospector in the mountains of Utah, 
where he located mines in Bingham Canyon, 
that yet retains his name, which he operated for 
twelve years. He then engaged in sawmilling 
in Wyoming near the Utah line, after sixteen 
years of this useful life retiring to' his ranch at 
Wilson, Utah, where he has since passed his 
life in quiet rest, having attained to the age of 
seventy-six years. The mother of the subject 
of this review, after faithfully and loyally aid- 
ing her husband in his active career, departed 
this life at the ag - e of sixty- four years in Aug- 
ust, 1900, at Wilson, her remains being in- 
terred in the cemetery at Ogden. 

Until he was twenty-two years old Elijah 
Bingham remained as a member of the pa- 
rental household, being diligently emploved in 
the various duties connected therewith. By his 
marriage on January 17, 1884. with Miss Jen- 
nie Wilson, of Wilson, Utah, whose paternal 
grandfather. Dunbar Wilson, was the first set- 
tler of the place and whose name it commem- 



orates, lie formed a home association of great 
value, which has proved during its many suc- 
cessive years to be a most felicitous union. 
She was born at Ogden, Utah, on April 18. 
1865, and was one of the extremely popular 
young ladies of the section of her birth. For 
twelve years after their marriage, Mr. and 
Mrs. Bingham made their home in Wilson as 
successful agriculturalists, then purchased 
their present estate at Blackfoot, Idaho, 
where they have since resided, secure in the 
esteem and confidence of their numerous 
friends, quietly pursuing the even tenor of 
their way and being prospered in their labors. 
They are valued members of the Mormon 
church, in which religious body Mr. Bingham 
is a teacher and one of the Seventies. Affiliat- 
ing with the Democratic party in politics, he 
does his full duty as a private in the ranks of 
this political organization, but has no desire to 
hold any public office or position. The follow- 
ing children have come to their home : Jennie 
Bertha, torn November 18, 1884; Elijah, born 
February 12, 1887, died when one month oldi 
Lewis Raynold, born June 5, 1888; Mabel Ivy. 
born September 8, 1890 ; Elverette. born Feb- 
ruary 13, 1893; Eva Catherine, born April 7. 
1895; Vernon T., born August 14, 1897: Jos r 
eph, born August 10. 1899. died in infancy; 
Lawrence Leland, born May 28. 1901. 

GEORGE C. PARKINSON. 

For completeness and cogency of organiza- 
tion, clearness and constancy of purpose, unity 
and vigor of action, determination and persist- 
ency of effort, sternness and patience of en- 
durance, and consequent magnitude and per- 
manency of accomplishment, no association of 
men surpasses the religious society technically 
named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints, and commonly called the Mormon 
church. Its life is not a long one, when reck- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



57 



oned by the calendar of epochs in human his- 
tory, as it is compassed within the memory of 
men now living. Founded in 1830, it has told 
in all but little over three score years and ten. 
But its record is momentous both in what its 
adherents have suffered and in what they have 
achieved. All forms of intolerance have op- 
posed its progress and attempted its life. Civ- 
ilization has invoked the forms of law and the 
force of government against it; barbarism has 
assailed it with fierce and relentless" cruelty. 
The inhospitality of the wilderness, the ra- 
pacity of Nature's "untamed brood" of beast 
and bird and reptile, the fury of wind and rain, 
of snow and hail, of fire and flood, have stood 
in its way, and over them all it has triumphed 
gloriously. 

It has been "a tower of adamant, against 
whose impregnable front hardship and danger, 
the rage oj: man and of the elements, the 
southern sun, the northern blast, fatigue, fam- 
ine and disease, delay, disappointment and de- 
ferred hope, have emptied their quivers in 
vain." Half a century ago it first broke the 
stillness of the Western solitude with its morn- 
ing hymn and its evening anthem; where it 
camped then in hope, it dwells now in comfort. 
It smote the rock in the wilderness and rich 
streams of material wealth gushed forth. 
Under its persuasive husbandry the arid plain 
has become the fruitful garden ; through its 
indomitable energy great hives of industry, 
mighty marts of commerce, luminous seats of 
learning and wise civil institutions have risen 
almost like exhalations. At its command a 
powerful and progressive commonwealth was 
spoken into being, and, clad in comely gar- 
ments, now stands forth before the gaze of 
men with words of welcome on her lips and 
bounteous blessings in her hands. 

The men who have wrought this wonder- 
work are worthy of all praise; and in the num- 
ber none has toiled more zealously and not 



many have accomplished more than the pres- 
ident of the Oneida stake in Idaho, the honored 
subject of this review, George C. Parkinson. 
He was born on July 18, 1857, at Kaysville, in 
Davis county, Utah, the son of Samuel Rose 
and Arabella Ann (Chandler) Parkinson, na- 
tives of England. They came to this country 
in 1846, and after some years' residence in St. 
Louis, came, in 1854, to Salt Lake City, and 
later, in i860, settled at what is now the town 
of Franklin, Idaho, being among the very first 
settlers in this section ; and, with the enter- 
prise and breadth of view that has distin- 
guished this people, the party, even while liv- 
ing in their wagons, erected a small school- 
house to provide some means of education for 
their children, realizing that the home would 
be incomplete without the school. The house 
was 20x40 feet in size, and, built of logs, was 
made as comfortable as the circumstances, of 
the case would admit. It was the first school- 
house in Idaho, and the school held in it was 
the first school within the present limits of 
the state. For further information concern- 
ing their useful lives and for ancestral history, 
see the memoir of Mr. S. R. Parkinson else- 
where in this volume. 

At this primitive institution Mr. George 
C. Parkinson began his education, meanwhile 
working on the farm and in other occupations 
incident to life in a new country, and remain- 
ing at home with his parents until 1876, when 
he was nineteen years old. He then entered 
Brigham Young College, at Logan, Utah, from 
which he graduated in June, 1880. While at- 
tending college he taught school between the 
terms at Logan. In 1881 he was sent on a 
mission to the Southern states, which lasted a 
year, and in the spring of 1882 he went on an- 
other one to England, which also lasted a year 
and was fruitful in excellent results. Reach- 
ing home again in July, 1883, he accepted the 
principalship of the school at Franklin and 



58 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



taught it for one winter, and, in April, 1884, 
he was appointed second counsellor to Presi- 
dent William D. Hendricks, of the Oneida 
stake, with headquarters at Oxford, whither 
he removed in the following' July. 

At Oxford he purchased a home and 
opened a mercantile business. In the ensuing 
fall he was elected the superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction of Oneida county, which at that 
time reached to the Montana line and included 
within its limits the present counties of Ban- 
nock, Brigham, Fremont and the present 
Oneida county, but continued still to make his 
home at Oxford, and there carry on his mer- 
chandising. In November, 1886, although 
still retaining his interests at Oxford, he again 
became a resident of Franklin, and there en- 
gaged in a general produce business, also deal- 
ing in sheep and cattle, being associated in 
these enterprises with his two brothers. Sam- 
uel C. and Frank C, and his father, Samuel R. 
Parkinson, under the firm name of Parkinson 
Bros. & Co. They handled hay, grain and 
other produce of all kinds, had large interests 
in cattle and sheep, which they bought and 
sold in an active market, and conducted a meat 
market with enterprise and vigor. He and his 
father held stock in the Franklin Co-operative 
store, and he allowed his stock to accumulate 
until, in 1888. he owned a considerable block. 
In that year a company was formed, consisting 
of himself, his Franklin and some Utah part- 
ners, which bought up all of the business en- 
terprises at Franklin and organized the Oneida 
Mercantile Union, with a capital stock of 
$50,000, the corporation to run for a term of 
fifty years. Mr. Parkinson was one of the 
principal stockholders and a director. 

By the same men. with a few exceptions, 
and some others, was also organized the Idaho 
Milling, Grain & Power Co., of Franklin, hav- 
ing a capital stock of $50,000, and they built 
a 125-barre] improved roller-process mill. 



which was one of the first in the entire Cache 
Valley. In this company Mr. Parkinson is also 
a director and a large stockholder. In 1892 he 
closed out his business interests at Oxford and 
still retained his residence in Franklin. In 1896 
he became a stockholder in the merchandising 
establishment of W. C. Parkinson & Co., at 
Preston, with which he has since been con- 
nected in a prominent and influential way. 

During all of these years Mr. Parkinson 
was zealously, and with great diligence and 
fidelity, attending to his church work and 
building up the interests of the religious or- 
ganization to which he has always been so 
firmly attached. On August 27, 1887. he was 
appointed president of the Oneida stake, which 
at that time embraced all of the Malad and 
Marsh Valleys, the Gentile Valley, the Pocatello 
country, the Portneuf Valley, and that portion 
of the Cache Valley that lies in Idaho. It con- 
tained eleven organized wards, with a total 
population of 3,000 persons, ninety-five per 
cent, of which belonged to the church. Since 
that time six additional stakes have been or- 
ganized in the territory, and his presidency 
now covers seventeen wards and a number of 
branches, with a total population of 6,000 
persons, all but five per cent, of whom are Mor- 
mons. At the time of his appointment to the 
presidency in T8R7 he lived at Oxford, but he 
then made his home in Franklin, where he re- 
sided until the fall of 1894. then took up his 
residence at Preston in the residence he now 
occupies opposite the Oneida Stake Academy, 
building for the purpose the attractive and 
comfortable brick dwelling in which he lives. 

From the beginning of his citizenship at 
Preston he has taken an active and leading part 
in the commercial life of the place. He has a 
fine farm of 250 acres within the town limits, 
and several properties which are occupied by 
tenants. He was manager of the Preston 
branch of the Studebaker Bros. Manufacturing 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



59 



Co. for four years, and of the W. C. Parkin- 
son Co.'s store in 1899 an d 1900. Since 
1898 he has been president of the People's 
Drug Co., which was organized in that year, 
being one of the leading stockholders. He is 
also president of the Oneida Telephone Co., a 
local company having its headquarters at Pres- 
ton. He is also a stockholder in the North 
Star Woolen Mills of Franklin, which is one 
of the principal business enterprises at that 
place. Upon the organization of the Idaho 
Sugar Co. in March, 1903, with an authorized 
capital of $1,000,000, Mr. Parkinson, 'who was 
an original stockholder, was chosen one of the 
directors. This company has its main office in 
Salt Lake City, and its mills at Idaho Falls. 
In May, 1903, the Eewiston Sugar Co., of 
Lewiston, Utah, came into being, also with an 
authorized capital of $1,000,000. In this com- 
pany Mr. Parkinson is a stockholder, a direc- 
tor, one of its executive committee, and also 
the general manager of the entire operation of 
the plant and company. 

Being a firm supporter of the policies of 
the Republican party, he has always taken an 
active interest in its affairs, attending many 
of its state conventions as a delegate, and ex- 
erting a wise and wholesome influence in its 
councils in state matters. In 1894 he was 
elected to the state senate as the representative 
in that body of the five counties of Bingham, 
Fremont, Bannock, Bear Lake and Oneida, a 
portion of the state which contained one- 
fourth of its whole population at that time. In 
1895 Gov. Wm. J. McConnell appointed him 
one of the regents of the State University, and 
at the end of his term in 1898 he was reap- 
pointed, the board having under its control also 
the State Agricultural College. In 1900 he re- 
ceived a third appointment to this position, 
and he is now serving as the secretary of the 
board and a member of its executive com- 
mittee under his fourth appointment. In 1896 



he was nominated as one of the candidates for 
presidential elector on the Republican ticket, 
and for a number of years he has been the 
president of the board of education for the 
Oneida stake, which has the Oneida Stake 
Academy under its control, an institution 
which was built between the years of 1890, and 
1894, at a cost of $50,000, and has become one 
of the principal educational institutions of this 
section of the state, having at this writing an 
attendance of 240 students, all pursuing aca- 
demic, manual training and normal courses of 
instruction. 

On April 14, 1881, Mr. Parkinson was 
married to Miss Lucy M. Doney, a native of 
Franklin, Idaho, the ceremony being perform- 
ed at Salt Lake City. Mrs. Parkinson is a 
daughter of John and Ann (George) Doney, 
natives of England, and for years among the 
leading citizens of Franklin. Eight children 
have blessed their union, George D., Lucy 
Ann, John Leo, Vera, Samuel Parley. Elna, 
Aleida and Dean. Mr. Parkinson's mother 
died on August 9, 1894, and his father still 
makes his home at Franklin. 

In promoting the cause and interests of 
agriculture Mr. Parkinson has been zealous 
and serviceable. He was a delegate, in 1893, 
to the Trans-Mississippi Congress of this in- 
dustry at San Francisco, in 1895 at Ogden, 
and in 1900 at St. Louis. He was also a dele- 
gate to the National Irrigation Congress at St. 
Louis in 1896 and at Colorado Springs, Colo., 
in 1902, circumstances however, preventing 
his attending the Colorado meeting. In 1898 
he was a delegate to the Northwestern Mining 
Congress at Baker City, Oregon, and again at 
Butte, Montana, in 1902. He has been large- 
ly interested in live stock, and represented his 
part of the county in the National Live Stock 
Association at Salt Lake City in 1901. In 
1895 he organized and presided over the 
Northwestern Stakes Mission, comprising 



6o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and contin- 
ued to serve the organization as its president 
until 1899. He is a gentleman of extensive 
travels, his commercial and religious duties 
having taken him all over the world, and he has 
derived the benefits of this wide acquaintance 
with different peoples and countries which al- 
ways accrue to men of close and discriminating 
observation, and has applied them with prac- 
tical wisdom to his business and his church 
work to the advantage of both. 

HON. ALBERT H. BLACK. 

One of the loyal citizens and sterling Re- 
publicans of the city of Pocatello, Bannock 
county, Idaho, is Ablert H. Black, the subject 
of this review, who has long been recognized as 
an important factor in the successes of the 
party and has ever exerted his utmost energies 
to achieve its triumph, as he is an earnest be- 
liever in its principles. Mr. Black, who is one 
of the prominent and progressive business men 
of the city of Pocatello and one of the pro- 
prietors of Black's Grocery Co., whose well- 
arranged and extensive place of business is lo- 
cated at Nos. 146 and 148 North Arthur ave- 
nue, was born in Adams county, Ohio, on May 
I, 1854, being a son of Arthur G. and Syrena 
(Pennington) Black, also natives of Ohio, 
where his father was born and reared, being a 
son of Isaac Black, a native of Pennsylvania. 
He was descended from that indomitable 
Scotch-Irish element that so long maintained 
a successful position in defense of their liber- 
ties in the northern part of the Emerald 
Isle. 

Mr. Black was one of a family of six chil- 
dren and accompanied his parents to Illinois in 
1864 when he was ten years of age, and there 
he was educated. At the age of about sixty 
years the father died, in Kansas, in 1879, the 
mother long surviving him and also dying in 



Kansas in 1897, at the age of seventy-six 
years. Mr. Black received his preliminary ed- 
ucational discipline in the winter country 
schools, being employed on the farm during the 
summer, later, however, supplementing the ed- 
ucation there acquired by six months' diligent 
attendance at the McDonough normal school, 
of Macomb, 111., and thereafter engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in Illinois until 1875. 
when he made his home with a farmer in Lynn 
county. Ore., there residing until 1881. then 
entering the service of the Mitchell-Lewis 
Mercantile Co.. with which he was connected 
in most pleasant relationship for twelve 
years. In 1894 he established himself as 
a merchant at Myrtle Point, and was en- 
gaged in the general trade at that place, 
being greatly prospered in his undertakings 
and considered one of the leading com- 
mercial men of that section of the state. 
He then sold out his interests in Oregon 
and identified himself as a citizen and business 
man with the thriving young town of Poca- 
tello, Idaho. Here he engaged in merchandis- 
ing, ranking high among the leading commer- 
cial men of the county. Mr. Black is greatly 
interested in public affairs from the standpoint 
of the Republican party, and, while a resident 
of Oregon served on the city council of Myr- 
tle Point for five years, and for four years was 
an honored chairman of the city council. In 
1900 he was nominated and elected a member 
of the Legislature of the state of Oregon from 
Coos county. 

Fraternally Mr. Black is affiliated with the 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Wood- 
men of the World, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and with the Maccabees, having 
held various offices and positions of trust and 
responsibility in connection with each of these 
organizations. 

The first marriage of Mr. Black occurred 
on August 12, 1875, in Macomb. 111., -when 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



61 



he was united in matrimony with Miss Eliza. 
J. Morrison, a native of Pennsylvania and a 
daughter of Hyman and Catharine (Stump) 
Morrison, and by this union there were six 
children : Addie, now the wife of S. S. White, 
pastor of the First Presbyterian church of 
Tillamook, Oregon; Arthur J., James A., and 
Elmer H. (all associated with their father in 
business in Pocatello), George and Edith 
Grace. Mrs. Black died on May 21, 189 1, and 
was buried in the Multinonah cemetery at Port- 
land, Oregon. On November 4, 1896, Mr. 
Black married Miss Rose Maguire, of Ma- 
comb, 111., a daughter of Edward and Ellen 
(Harris) Maguire, her maternal grandfather 
being a native of Kentucky; she died on No- 
vember 5, 1900, and was buried at Macomb, 
111. The third marriage of Mr. Black oc- 
curred on July i, 1892, when Mrs. Bessie 
(Bryan) Porter, the widow of Doctor Porter, 
of Boston, Mass., and a daughter of Doctor 
Bryan, of Nashville, Tenn., became his wife. 
Mr. Black is a man of keen discrimination and 
sound judgment, and his executive ability and 
excellent management have brought to* the en- 
terprise with which he has been and is con- 
nected a high degree of success. He possesses 
progressive methods, diligence and sound 
judgment, and his prosperity is well deserved. 
He is thoroughly American in thought and 
feeling, and does all in his power to promote 
the interests of the city, county and state where 
he has made his permanent home. 

EDWARD BODILY. 

All climes and tongues, all countries and 
peoples seemingly have been laid under 
tribute to assist the marvelous growth and 
vigor of the Mormon church, whose mission- 
aries are sent to the utmost parts of the earth 
with its message of gospel truth and salvation. 
And it was in far-awav South Africa that this 



message reached Robert and Jane (Pittam) 
Bodily, natives of Northamptonshire, England, 
where the father was an industrious and pros- 
perous stone-mason, following his chosen vo- 
cation in his native land until 1846. At that 
time he emigrated, going to Cape Colony in 
South Africa, and, locating between Port 
Elizabeth and Grahamstown, kept an inn and 
also worked at blacksmithing and wagonmak- 
ing. His family was among the early English 
settlers in that portion of the colony, and they 
remained there fourteen years, their inn being 
a well-known and .popular hostelry. 

In 1857 they were converted to the Mor- 
mon faith, and three years later they deter- 
mined to emigrate to the United States and 
there make their home near the central seat of 
the church. At this time their son, Edward, 
was nine years old, having been born at their 
South African home on December 12, 185 1. 
After an uneventful voyage they landed at 
Boston in the spring of i860, and at once pur- 
sued their journey to Utah, crossing the plains 
and arriving at the Mormon capital on October 
6, i860. They remained at Salt Lake City 
until the following June, then moved to Kays- 
ville, Utah, where the father purchased land 
and settled down to farming, remaining there 
engaged in that peaceful vocation until his 
death on April 15, 1893, and there the mother 
still makes her home. 

On the farm which the parents carved 
out of the wilderness their son, Edward 
Bodily, reached manhood, receiving from 
the schools of the vicinity a limited ed- 
ucation. He assisted his father on the 
farm until the spring of 1874, and in 
April of that year came to the northern 
part of the Cache Valley and filed on the ranch 
which he now owns and farms, four miles 
south of Preston, in Fairview precinct. He 
determined to make this his permanent home, 
and in 1875 went to Kaysville to marry, on his 



62 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



return bringing his bride to his new residence 
in a country, as yet, almost uninvaded by the 
adventurous white man, although his two 
brothers, William and James, had preceded 
him in its occupancy. 

The hardships and dangers of the frontier 
were full upon them, the land was wild and un- 
productive, seasons were unfavorable to their 
early efforts, houses and other buildings had to' 
be erected under great difficulties, and all their 
operations were menaced with interruptions by 
hostile savages. It was often doubtful if they 
would be able to remain, but by untiring en- 
ergy and vigorous application they at length 
reached a condition of comparative comfort 
and since then the progress and development of 
the region has been steady. Whatever the 
land has become as a civilized and productive 
country is due to the indomitable perseverance 
and almost incredible endurance of these hardy 
pioneers, and all of its works of convenience 
and improvement were originated and in the 
main constructed by them. 

Mr. Bodily was one of the most active and 
efficient of these energetic people, and is en- 
titled to the cordial praise he has always re- 
ceived of later years for his share in the work. 
He was occupied in farming until 1896, when 
he started in the sheep industry, which he is 
still conducting with increased profit and con- 
tinually expanding magnitude. He has been 
constant and unyielding in devotion to the in- 
terests of his church, serving it in every pos- 
sible way and inspiring- others to do the same. 
As counsellor to Bishop Pratt, since 1888, he 
has been prominent and influential in its gov- 
ernment and work, and all branches of the or- 
ganization in this part of the county have felt 
the effect of his presence. In all the relations 
of life Mr. Bodily has borne himself in an up- 
right and manly manner, and has won the uni- 
versal respect of the community by the excel- 
lence of his public services and his private 
character. 



On January 25, 1875, at Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Bodily married with Miss Matilda Rob- 
erts, a native of Utah, and a daughter of Levi 
and Harriet A. (Effort) Roberts. They be- 
came Mormons in England, their native coun- 
try, and came to the United States early in the 
forties, joining the great body of the church 
at Nauvoo, III., where the father was one of 
the guards of the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 
troublous times of that period, and in 1846 he 
was one of the Mormon battalion that crossed 
the plains to the farther West in search of a 
suitable location for the new Zion it was de- 
signed to build. From this expedition he re- 
turned to Council Bluffs, where he had left his 
family, and conducted them to Utah, lived at 
Salt Lake for a short time, then went to Kays- 
ville, where they were among the first settlers, 
and there the father devoted his energies to 
farming, both parents remaining there until 
death, the father passing away on January 22, 
1894, and the mother on December 16, 1895. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bodily have had thirteen 
children: Henry J., Effie (deceased), Edwin. 
Levi, Robert (deceased). Christopher. Har- 
riet M., Robenia V.. Wilfred, Emma (de- 
ceased), Delbert T. (deceased) and Myrl L. 
The oldest son, Henry J., is married and has 
a farm near Fairview, and the second. Edwin, 
is now on a mission to the Middle States. 

THOMAS H. BOYCE. 

One of the substantial, but quiet and unos- 
tentatious citizens of Fremont county, this 
state, is Mr. Thomas H. Boyce. of Lewisville. 
who is not only a successful practical farmer, 
a persistent worker, unyielding in his earnest 
endeavors, but also a representative and effect- 
ive worker in the religious field of the Church 
of Latter Dav Saints, wherein his labors have 
been greatly blessed by the Lord. He was 
born mi July 19, 1859, at South Cotton- 
wood, Utah, a son of William and Phoebe 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



63 



(Spears) Boyce, natives of the state of 
Michigan, who crossed the plains to Utah 
in 185 1 with one of the ox-train com- 
panies of the period, settling at South 
Cottonwood, where they passed many years 
of quiet agricultural life, evincing by their 
daily lives the sincerity of their religious 
professions. The father died in 1887, while 
the mother is still residing at the old home, 
carrying her eighty-twO' years of life lightly 
and contentedly. 

Thomas H. Boyce has been a farmer from 
boyhood, and whatever of special adaptation 
for any profession may come from a natural 
love and taste for it will accrue to him, for it is 
a life in which he finds health and pleasure as 
well as prosperity. Coming to Lewisville in 
1883 with one of the early companies of set- 
tlers, no one has here found greater enjoyment 
in the strenuous life of hardship, continuous 
labor, and well-directed mental exertion re- 
quired to supplant the original desert condition 
of the land by a productive husbandry, develop- 
ing, as he has, an attractive home and estate, 
and at the same time keeping pace with the 
progress of the world through timely perusal 
of the best literature. 

A Mormon from birth, his heart and mind 
have ever been attuned to the voice of the 
Word, and he has most worthily held in con- 
secutive order the ecclesiastical offices of 
deacon, elder, priest and high priest, holding 
the latter at the time of this writing. Further 
than this, he has given his time and service to 
the church in mission work, having passed two 
years, from 1891 to 1893, * n England, in this 
duty, and on November 20, 1902, he was 
called to Beaver City, Utah, on a mission for 
the Y. M. M. I. Co. On May 25, 1886, at 
Lewisville, Idaho, was celebrated the marriage 
of Mr. Boyce and Miss Clarissa E. Selck, born 
on September 18, 1869, as a daughter of Wil- 
liam W. and Anna C. (Sorenson) Selck, na- 



tives of Denmark, but who were married at 
Provo, Utah, thereafter making their home at 
Camas, Utah, until 1884, when they removed 
to Lewisville, where they are now living, the 
father being fifty-nine years of age and the 
mother fifty-seven. This marriage has proved 
a most congenial and fortunate union, Mrs. 
Boyce ably co-operating with her husband in 
all of his labors and duties, being the counsel- 
lor and also the president of the Young La- 
dies' Mutual Improvement Society and a 
teacher in the Sunday school. 

The family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Boyce 
has been enlarged by the following children : 
William H., bora October 27, 1887; George 
F., born December 13, 1889; Eliza C, born 
April 29, 1892 ; Ivy I., born July 30, 1894, 
died March 2, 1896; Clarence L., born July 
12, 1896; Earnest L., born October 23, 1898, 
died January 28, 1899; Irving, bora March 
11, 1900, died June 13, 1902; Reed S., born 
April 18, 1902. 

DAVID BRECKENRIDGE. 

No student of American history, however 
cursory may have been his studies, but has be- 
come familiar with the name of Breckenridge, 
which has been borne by some of the brightest 
minds of the United States. Notably in Ken- 
tucky has it both by its virtues and by its follies 
been most conspicuously connected with the 
life of the people. The name originated during 
one of those fierce religious wars so prevalent 
in Scotland a few centuries ago, when a num- 
ber of the Clan MacLean, who were escaping 
from a disastrous defeat of the Protestant 
army, encompassed their safety by concealing 
themselves under a fine growth of the shrub 
bracken, which grew plentifully on the ancient 
stone bridges of the mountain regions, there- 
after taking as their name Brackenbridge, 
which in some families of their descendants 



6 4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



later was converted into the present name. 
The name took root on American soil soon 
after the establishment of the Virginia colony, 
with which it was identified from that date, 
members of the family being also numbered 
among the associates of Daniel Boone and 
Calloway in the early settlement of Kentucky, 
where the family has attained perhaps its high- 
est development, producing among its dis- 
tinguished sons one vice-president of the 
United States and numerous eminent states- 
men and orators. 

David Breckenridge, of this review, was 
born at Springfield, 111., on December 28, 1850, 
a son of Preston and Lucy (Rubb) Brecken- 
ridge, the father being a native of Kentucky, 
where he was born on August 5, 1807, near 
Paris, Bourbon county. He became a pioneer 
settler of central Illinois and his death occurred 
at Springfield on July 24, 188 1, long surviving 
his wife, who died in 1854. Their son, David, 
was but four years old at the time of his moth- 
er's death, and at the age of eighteen 
years he left Illinois to seek his fortune 
in the lands of the West, visiting in turn 
Nebraska, where he was located for two 
years, Texas, where he was engaged in 
cattle operations, being also the efficient 
marsha.ll of Brownwood, Brown county, 
thereafter passing a year in New Mex- 
ico, after which he was engaged in prospecting 
and mining in the vicinity of Leadville, Colo., 
coming to Idaho in 1881 and locating in 
the Teton Basin, when there were only four 
families there located. Taking note of the 
plentitude of game and fur-bearing animals in 
this primitive land, he here profitably engaged 
for some years in trapping, and then became 
one of the earliest pioneers of the basin in the 
stockraising industry. He had excellent op- 
portunities to locate a homestead and became 
the proprietor of 280 acres of centrally located 
and valuable land, lying less than two miles 
northeast of Haden postoffice. 



From the first Mr. Breckenridge has been 
prospered in his business operations, and has 
maintained the family reputation of ably hold- 
ing official stations of trust and responsibility, 
showing great ability in his administration of 
the responsible office of county commissioner 
of Bingham county during the first year of the 
statehood of Idaho, and being recognized as 
one of the leading stockmen of this section of 
the state who has deservedly won a high place 
in the esteem of the people by his inflexible in- 
tegrity, his business qualifications and his many 
estimable qualities of head and heart. Politi- 
cally he is a loyal Republican and fraternally 
a member of the Masonic fraternity, holding 
membership at Brownwood, Tex. 

On December 6, 1893, Mr. Breckenridge 
was united in marriage with Miss Margaret 
Keyes, a native of Utah and a daughter of 
Robert and Margaret (McFadden) Keyes, who 
came from Scotland to Utah in 185 1. the 
father there long conducting carpentry and 
working at the wheelwright's trade, and dying 
at Beaver City, Utah, in 1891, at the age of 
seventy-seven years, surviving his wife, who 
died in 1888 at the age of fifty-four. She was 
a native of Ireland, a daughter of Patrick and 
Margaret McFadden. The children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Breckinridge are Lucy (deceased). 
Preston K.. Davida W. and Robert C. 

HON. ALFRED BUDGE. 

Hon. Alfred Budge, the present popular 
presiding judge of the Fifth judicial district 
of the state of Idaho, which comprises the 
counties of Bannock. Bear Lake and Oneida, 
was born on February 24, 1868. at Providence, 
Cache county, Utah, as the son of Hon. Wil- 
liam and Eliza (Prichert) Budge. For the an- 
cestral history of the family and for the dis- 
tinguished career of his honored father the 
reader is referred to a separate memoir appear- 
ing on other pages of this volume. 




€/- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES,, IDAHO. 



6 7 



During the boyhood days of Judge Budge 
he enjoyed few of what are now termed the 
comforts of life, for, from the exigencies of 
the case, he was compelled to aid early in life 
"by diligent daily labor in the support of him- 
self and also to assist in supporting other mem- 
bers of his father's family, by this out-of-doors 
employment, however, building up a strong 
constitution and an athletic physique. His early 
school life was limited, only covering a period 
of from four to six months a year at the prim- 
itive common schools of Bear Lake county un- 
til he was fifteen years of age, when for about 
three years he was a student at the Brigham 
Young Academy of Provo, Utah, where he re- 
ceived his modicum of literary education. 

Judge Budge has never had any other op- 
portunity to secure a literary education, not 
being ever in a position to' avail himself of the 
advantages of a college or university training, 
and the success he has attained in this direc- 
tion has come to him solely from his own per- 
sistent efforts and from earnest study in the 
face of innumerable obstacles. He had, even 
when a mere lad, a strong desire to educate 
himself as a lawyer, and. as he advanced in 
years, this desire grew upon him to such an 
extent that it became his firm resolve to make 
his life work in this noble profession. After 
his graduation from the academy at Provo, he 
passed thirty months in Europe, visiting Ger- 
many, France and England, and, after his re- 
turn home, he matriculated at the law depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan at Ann 
Arbor, from which he was duly graduated in 
1892, and, in July of the same year he estab- 
lished himself in legal practice in his native 
town, without either money or a much-needed 
library. 

His ability in the various departments of 
his chosen profession were soon recognized, 
and business, which was skillfully and prompt- 
ly attended to, came to him, and in the small 



and inconspicuous county-seat town of his 
birth and residence, where he has been known 
to all, like the pages of an open book, from his 
childhood's days, he has built up a solid and 
fairly profitable practice. During these years 
he has accumulated an excellent library, num- 
erous standard authorities of legal erudition 
finding their way to his shelves. He has never 
changed his residence, and has never had but 
one profession or business, that of the law. 
He has never charged a widow, an orphan or 
an invalid a fee, nor has he ever turned away 
the poor or forsaken the unfortunate. 

Judge Budge has been a Republican from 
his first vote, and was one of the few faithful 
members of that party that did not join in the 
Free Silver heresy, when so many were carried 
from their moorings by its tempestuous force. 
He quaintly puts his opinion of such move- 
ments in these words, "I have always believed, 
in settling family differences within the fam- 
ily circle," and, as he has been in the past, so he 
is today, a stalwart Republican, an earnest be- 
liever in and a strong supporter of the present 
Republican state and national administrations. 
He is heartily in favor of the seating of Hon. 
Reed Smoot as a member of the U. S. Senate 
from Utah, holding that religious tests are, 
and have always been, inimical to good gov- 
ernment, but admitting that the U. S. Senate 
has absolute control in deciding upon the qual- 
ifications that entitle a member to a seat in 
its body. 

In the fall of 1894 Judge Budge was 
elected by a complimentary vote as the dis- 
trict attorney of the Fifth judicial district of 
Idaho, then comprising Bannock, Bear Lake, 
Bingham, Fremont, Lemhi and Oneida coun- 
ties, and in the four years in which he served 
in this office he became extensively known and 
acquired many friends by his estimable per- 
sonal qualities and won a high reputation for 
the ability shown in the discharge of his offi- 



68 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



rial duties. In attack or in defense his re- 
sources were seen to be at instant command, 
and all of his work was fortified and sustained 
by manly integrity. In November, 1898, offi- 
cial honors again came to him in his election 
as the county prosecuting attorney of Bear 
Lake county on the McKinley Republican 
ticket for a term of two years. His tact, en- 
ergy and honesty of heart and purpose, com- 
bined with his accurate legal methods of pro- 
cedure and his pleasing presentations of propo- 
sitions of law, whether before the court or 
jury, so added to his personal strength, that, 
after' serving his first term, he was returned for 
a second one by a re-election. 

By this time his reputation as a legist had 
so far extended, and his popularity attained to 
so high a standing, that when the Republican 
leaders of southeastern Idaho began to cast 
about them for a candidate sufficiently strong 
in all the elements of legal learning, clear, cool 
and unimpassioned judgment, broad and vig- 
orous intellect, as well as the possession of 
strength in the favor of the populace, to place in 
nomination against Hon. Joseph C. Rich, who 
had served four years as the presiding judge 
of the Fifth judicial district of the state, and 
was the formidable candidate of the Demo- 
cratic party for re-election, Mr. Budge was 
selected in the district convention as his oppo- 
nent. The campaign was a hot and spirited 
one, not a "walk-over" by any means, but when 
the votes of the district had been duty cast, 
recorded and announced, the brilliant honor of 
victory came to the Republican candidate, who 
received the news of his election with the quiet 
philosophy and unruffled demeanor that have 
been from childhood among his leading char- 
acteristics. 

To the high, onerous and responsible duties 
of this important judicial office Judge Budge 
is now devoting himself, his capability for 
their proper discharge being more and more 
manifest in each successive term of court. 



while, as an index of the popular estimate of 
his success in this difficult field, the writer will 
be allowed to quote an expression he heard 
made by one of the prominent county officials 
of Bannock county, who said, "I voted against 
Judge Budge, but when I see how he dis- 
patches business, what a clear comprehension 
he shows of all legal matters and contested 
points coming before him, the quickness with 
which he can call a wandering lawyer back to 
the case in hand and the gentlemanly courtesy 
he manifests to every one in all cases, I can as- 
sure you of one thing, if he is a candidate to 
succeed himself, he is sure of my vote." 

In business matters Judge Budge is not 
prominent. He is one of the poor men of 
Bear Lake county, owns a small farm and hay 
claim, has a good residence and a few lots in 
the little city of Paris, and is a stockholder and 
a director in the Paris Roller Mill, but his life 
has been devoted to law, not to the acquisition 
of wealth, and the law is a jealous and an 
absorbing mistress, allowing no one who would 
win her favors any opportunity to divert his 
attention to other matters, and this Judge 
Budge has never done. In local affairs he has 
been a member of the Paris city council, city 
attorney and a school trustee. He was born 
and reared in the faith of the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints, and says that he 
"has never been able to find any reason to sever 
his connection with that religious organiza- 
tion." He holds no official position in the 
church. The Judge has an attractive person- 
ality, being tall and well formed, and at first 
sight impresses one with his manliness, cour- 
tesy and strength of character. He stands well 
in his home community and has the confidence 
and esteem of those who know him intimately. 
Although he has attained high honors, he is 
yet young and it is to be hoped that he may 
live to give many years of usefulness to the 
service of his state and its people. 

At Logan, Utah, on July 5. 1894. the Judge 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



69 



was united in wedlock with Miss Ella Hoge, a 
daughter of Hon. Walter Hoge, an old and 
highly respected citizen of Paris, Idaho. She 
was reared and educated in Paris, the place of 
her birth, and is seven years younger than her 
husband. Their home has been blessed with 
five children : Alfred Hoge Budge, born on 
April 17, 1895; Drew W. Standrod Budge,- 
born on October 26, 1896; Ella Leona Budge, 
deceased, born on October 3, 1898 ; Ina Eliz- 
abeth Budge, born January 14, 1900; Ora 
Amelia Budge, born on September 14, 1902. 

BISHOP AARON F. BRACKEN. 

The functions of the historian have never 
brought him into more agreeable relations than 
in narrating the marvelous achievements, the 
heroic endurance, the unceasing faith and the 
pronounced and wonderful results that attend- 
ed the planting and continued growth of the 
Mormon church in the Great West, and in 
noting and recording the useful lives and ac- 
tivities of those powerful spirits who still main- 
tain its integrity and interests in this fair land 
of unbounded promise. Standing among this 
number in this section of the state of Idaho, 
where his capabilities as a man of business are 
fully demonstrated in his operations as a suc- 
cessful merchant and the popular postmaster at 
Freedom, Bannock county, Bishop A. F. 
Bracken is one to whom the historian most 
willingly gives a place in this memorial volume 
dedicated to the men who by their progressive 
energy are rapidly developing the dormant 
possibilities of this portion of the state, by 
their strength and multiform potentialities add- 
ing to the weal of the commonwealth and the 
vigor of its institutions. 

A native son of the West, who has been 
from his birth connected with the enlightened 
and beneficent activities of his church, Bishop 
Bracken was born on January 12, 1869, in 



Tooele county, Utah, a son of Aaron and Eliz- 
abeth (Lee) Bracken, the father, when but a 
lad, coming to Utah with his parents, who em- 
igrated from their native land to seek in a dis- 
tant and forbidding country the free enjoyment 
of their religious faith. In Utah he manifested 
great interest in agriculture and to a certain ex- 
tent in horticulture, financial prosperity follow- 
ing his intelligent and industrious efforts, and 
holding the office of elder in the church, and 
being called to the higher life in 1875 at the 
age of twenty-four years. The mother was 
born in Nauvoo, 111., on November 19, 1848, 
during the Mormon occupancy, being a 
daughter of Isaac and Julia Ann (Chapman) 
Lee, as a child accompanying her parents to 
Utah in the early fifties. Their later years 
were passed in Bear Lake county, Idaho, of 
which they were among the earlier settlers. 

From his earliest days Bishop Bracken 
manifested great energy and intelligence, and 
he was especially active in the acquisition of 
knowledge, being also unintermitting in his 
industrious aid to his parents in their pioneer 
labors in Bear Lake county, of which he be- 
came a resident at the age of seven years. 
After dutifully discharging his filial duties un- 
til he had attained mature years, he engaged in 
ranching operations for himself, and, in May, 
1886, he located in Star Valley for two years. 
Thence removing to the Lower Valley, he there 
continued in the same vocation, first settling at 
Bannock, Idaho, thereafter residing in Bing- 
ham county for one year, then going- to Uinta 
county, Wyo., where he made his home at 
Thayne until 1900, for the latter portion of his 
residence being connected with the store of 
Mr. Arthur Robert, where he rapidly acquired 
the practical knowledge of those principles of 
finance that underlie successful merchandising 
operations. 

In April, 1900, he came to his present loca- 
tion, establishing here a solid center of trade, 



7° 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



by displaying a well-selected stock of general 
merchandise, and here he is building up a fine 
patronage by his honorable methods, personal 
integrity and winning popularity, being con- 
sidered one of the representative men of 
his section of the state. On the estab- 
lishment of the postoffice of Freedom, 
which the subject of this review was a 
leading factor in securing , he was com- 
missioned its postmaster, and is still in the 
incumbency of that office. His religious na- 
ture and fervent zeal have rendered his asso- 
ciation with the church one of the most valu- 
able character, and he is now holding the office 
of bishop of Freedom ward, to which position 
he was set apart on July 15, 1900, by Apostle 
A. O. Woodruff', performing the duties of this 
high office with great acceptability and to the 
manifest advantage of his church, while in 
1896 and 1897 he filled with highly successful 
results a mission in the Southern states. 

Bishop Bracken married, on October 30, 
1889, with Miss Amelia Hansen, a native of 
Utah, who was born on March 30, 1867, at Big 
Cottonwood, a daughter of Ole and Julia T. 
(Johnston) Hansen, the mother now receiving 
the tender care of her daughter at her home at 
Freedom, while the father closed his eyes in 
death on February 7, 1889, at St. Charles, 
Idaho. The five children which give an atmos- 
phere of pleasant cheer to the home of Bishop 
Bracken are named Aaron F., George A., 
Heber R.. Morley and Milo. Life is passing 
pleasantly to the genial bishop in most prosper- 
ous business relations, and he is surrounded by 
a family and a circle of highly appreciated 
friends, and, performing the offices of his cleri- 
cal position to the advancement of the spiritual 
condition of his parishioners, he is recognized 
as a decided factor in the various circles of life 
making up the aggregate of an intelligent and 
prosperous community, while in the Republi- 
can political party, to which he gives support, 
he has a conceded influence. 



JOHN A. CUTHBERT. 

The traveler for the first time passing 
through the well-irrigated and fertile country 
surrounding Sayer. Idaho, will have his at- 
tention particularly attracted to the estate of 
John A. Cuthbert, the progressive methods of 
the father and sons, who are here jointly con- 
ducting husbandry in several of its depart- 
ments, clearly demonstrating to the most cas- 
ual . observer that they are in full possession 
and knowledge of the basic and underlying 
principles of successful agriculture, and that 
they have the sagacity and skill to rightly ap- 
ply it. As a consequence they are prospered 
in their undertakings and are considered to be 
among the up-to-date representative farmers 
of the entire valley. 

John A. Cuthbert. son of Edward and 
Susan (McKee) Cuthbert, was born in the 
state of Iowa on February 15. 1847, his par- 
ents then being on their long journey from 
their native land of Scotland to Utah. The 
travel was continued westward from Iowa in 
one of the Mormon ox-train companies of 
1848. but the lad was soon orphaned by the 
loss of his mother in the same year. At Salt 
Lake City the father engaged in blacksmithing, 
which became his lifework. as he continued its 
prosecution until his death, at fifty years of 
age, in 1868. 

Mr. Cuthbert of this review had some 
years of attendance at the Salt Lake City 
schools, but was early at work at various indus- 
tries, freighting, herding, ranching, etc.. un- 
til in 1883 he found his way to the Snake 
River Valley of Idaho, and at once located 
a homestead, which comprised his present pro- 
ductive estate, and which is still his residence. 
Its changed condition from a sagebrush wil- 
derness testifies in a marked degree the value 
of intelligent and thoughtful application of the 
practical rules of agriculture, which every 
farmer knows but so few apply to the needs 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



7i 



of their business. In the first years of their 
residence here Mr. Cuthbert and his sons gave 
time and attention to the construction of the 
Great Feeder and the Parks & Lewisville Ca- 
nals, in both of which they are stockholders. 
Never a politician or demagogue, but a quiet 
observer of national as well as local affairs, 
Mr. Cuthbert has ever supported the Demo- 
cratic party, its principles and policies appeal- 
ing to him. as the best adapted to the people's 
good. By his first marriage, consummated on 
January 11, 1869, with Miss Georgiana 
Thompson, Mr. Cuthbert had three sons : 
John A., George C, and Edward W., who died 
at three years of age. His second marriage, 
with Miss Emma Blair, occurred on Decem- 
ber 25, 1877. She was born on September 30, 
1855, accompanying her parents, Edward W. 
and Jane (Fenwick) Blair, from England in 
i860 to Salt Lake City, where her father, who 
had led a seafaring life for many years, found 
employment in building and putting up the 
cranes to raise the massive blocks of rock 
used in the construction of the Mormon tem- 
ple, and here he received injuries in a fall from 
the building which resulted in his death, at 
sixty-two years of age. The children of the 
second marriage are, Eleanor J. died on March 
23, 1898, at twenty years of age; Edward B., 
born July 8, 1870; Joseph B., born September 
26, 1877; Thomas B., born June 22, 1895; 
Clarence B., born February 25, 1898. The 
unity and harmony of the entire family is 
shown in the fact that all of the surviving chil- 
dren are living with their parents. 

John A. Cuthbert, Jr., was born on Sep- 
tember 24, 1869, at Salt Lake City, and from 
childhood he has remained with his father, be- 
ing associated with him in all of the business 
and financial enterprises and plans in which 
he has been interested. On December 13, 1893, 
he married with Miss Sylvia Kite, a daughter 
of William and Phoebe (Cummings) Kite, of 



Utah, by whom he has two winsome children, 
John W., born on May 2, 1894, and Arthur, 
born September 6, 1896. In 1899 Mr. Cuth- 
bert was elected justice of the peace for Sayer 
and served creditably for one term; he also 
served one term as a school trustee and one- 
half of a second term, then tendering his res- 
ignation. The entire family stands high in 
the esteem of their numerous friends. 

JAMES G. BROWNING. 

The Browning family has for many cen- 
turies been prominent in England, especially in 
industrial and agricultural circles, branches of 
the family, however, standing prominent in 
professional and literary life, one of the most 
celebrated being the famous poet, Robert 
Browning, and for over half a century the 
American branch of the English family has 
been doing pioneer work in Utah, exemplify- 
ing by its correct life and its industrious appli- 
cation to various fields of human endeavor the 
same valuable elements of manly character 
which have been so long characteristic of its 
British ancestors. 

James G Browning, the eldest son and 
child of James G and Ann (Wood) Browning 
(his second wife), was born at Ogden, Utah, 
on November 3, 1862, the father being a na- 
tive of Tennessee and the mother of English 
parentage and birth. In 1852 they came to 
Utah, crossing the plains, as did so many 
others in those early years of Mormon 
immigration into Utah, with ox teams, 
the mother walking the greater portion 
of the long and wearisome way, settling 
at Ogden in the same year, thus becom- 
ing pioneers of Weber county, with which 
he was identified and where he resided 
as a most valuable member of the community 
until his death on November 20, 1878. The 
family thereafter remained at Ogden until 



72 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1884, when they removed to La Belle, Idaho, 
where they have since maintained their resi- 
dence, being intelligent, industrious and public 
spirited, and taken prominent position in so- 
cial, society and church circles. There were 
five children in the family, as follows : James 
G., George A., Edmond, Jonathan, and Lewis 
W., who died in his second year. 

As the eldest of the children, upon the 
father's death the oversight and care of the 
widowed mother and her family devolved upon 
Mr. Browning of this memoir, and loyally did 
he perform the implied duties, laboring earn- 
estly, unselfishly and thoughtfully for the bene- 
fit of one and all, until some of the younger 
brothers attained manhood and his marriage 
with Miss Amanda V. Elmer occurred, on April 
26, 1883. In 1885 Mr. Browning used his 
homestead right on 160 acres of land at La 
Belle, Idaho, which has since been his home, 
and on which, after bestowing much time and 
care in its improvements, he "proved up" in 
1889, thus securing a full title. 

Going back a little, we will state that Mr. 
Browning at the age of fifteen years was ap- 
prenticed to the printer's trade in the office of 
the Ogden Junction, the pioneer newspaper of 
Ogden, in which office and that of its successor, 
the Ogden Herald, he fully learned the ''art 
and mystery" of the printer's craft. Front 
1885 to 1889 he was employed at his trade in 
Idaho Falls, but only for a portion of each 
year, as his residence on his homestead had to 
be maintained, and from 1889 until 1891 he 
was an emplove of the W. W. Browning & 
Co.'s job printing office at Ogden, from 
whence he returned to his Fremont count}' 
home, working at various times since in the 
printing offices at Rexburg and Idaho Falls. 

His industry has developed a well-watered, 
fertile and attractive farm, on which he has 
about two acres of orchard trees in full bearing, 
and he is looked upon as one of the representa- 



tive men of the community, in the Republican 
political party laboring heartily for its enun- 
ciated principles and the duly nominated can- 
didates, while in the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints he has ably filled respon- 
sible trusts, having held the offices of a deacon, 
an elder, and high priest, and he was set apart 
second counsellor in 1898, and in 1904 as first 
counsellor to Bishop John G. Morgan, and is 
holding the last office at the present writing. 

Mrs. Browning - was born on July 5, 1864, 
at Ogden, Utah, a daughter of William and 
Mary A. (Gean) Elmer, the father having his 
birth at Norwich, Vermont, and joining the 
Mormon church in 1835, subsequently remov- 
ing to Ouincv, 111., and taking part in the 
troublous times antecedent to and following 
the tragic death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 
and afterwards residing at Kanesville, now 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, for seven years and then 
crossing the plains as a memljer of one of the 
ox-train companies in 1852. arriving at Salt 
Lake City in October, there marrying Miss 
Mary Ann Gean and making the family home 
at Bingham Fort, where he assisted in the 
construction of the fort and followed farm- 
ing and carpentrv until driven from the 
place to southern Utah in i860. Then, 
after residing" one year at Pason, he made 
the family home at Ogden, where he ever 
after resided, dying, a highly respected 
citizen, on December 14. 1894, at the age 
of seventy-four years, the mother also dy- 
ing at Ogden on April 17. 1903. having ac- 
complished seventy years of an industrious and 
heneficial existence and being the mother of 
four children, of whom Mrs. Browning is the 
third in the order of birth. 

Fight children have been horn to Mr. and 
Mrs. Browning, namely : Vilate. at Ogden on 
April 16, 1884; James G., at Ogden on No- 
vember 10. 1885 ; Mabel, at LaBelle on March 
31, t888; Elmer G, at Ogden on December 16, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



73 



1890, died in infancy; Lulu, at La Belle on 
June 29, 1892; Earl, on September 24, 1897, 
died March 25, 1898; Earnest L., on Novem- 
ber 22, 1899; Raymond E., on May 21, 1902. 

JESSE R. S. BUDGE. 

Among the prominent younger members of 
the bar of the state of Idaho, who by their tal- 
ents, ability and manifestations of superior 
legal attainments, are rapidly forging to the 
front in the knowledge and esteem of the peo- 
ple, must be mentioned the subject of this re- 
view, Jesse R. S. Budge, the very efficient 
prosecuting attorney of Bear Lake county, who 
is discharging the duties of that office in a 
manner that is eminently satisfactory, not only 
to the members of his political party, but also 
to the people throughout the entire county. 
He was born in Paris, Bear Lake county, 
Idaho, on September 14, 1878, being the son 
of Hon.. William and Julia (Stratford) Budge. 

The father, Hon. William Budge, was born 
at Lanark, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on May 1, 
1828, while the mother received her birth on 
September 20, 1839, at Moldon, County Essex, 
England. The father joined the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Decem- 
ber 31, 1848, and from 185 1 until i860 labored 
as a missionary of that faith in Scotland, Eng- 
land, Switzerland and Germany, then came to 
America and was a resident of Utah until 1870, 
when he made a permanent home in Bear Lake 
county, Idaho. Since coming to Idaho he has 
filled church missions for thirty months as 
president of the church in Europe, having his 
headquarters in Liverpool, England. A pro- 
nounced Republican in politics, he has for 
three terms served the people of Bear Lake 
county in the state Senate, being regarded by 
"non-Mormons" as the most prominent and 
influential Mormon in Idaho. For further de- 
tails of his life the reader may consult his per- 
sonal memoir appearing elsewhere in this work. 



Jesse R. S. Budge irregularly attended the 
public schools of Paris and also a church 
school, the Bear Lake Stake Academy, until 
1894. During these years of childhood, how- 
ever, his experiences and habits were much the 
same as any farmer's or rancher's son, for his 
father, whose time was largely occupied by his 
religious duties, owned extensive tracts of land 
and from 100 to 250 head of cattle, and it fell 
to the lot of Jesse early to be one of the number 
to care for the cattle and to aid in putting up 
the hay for their winter sustenance in the 
proper season for such work. His slight early 
opportunities of school attendance were very 
beneficially supplemented by his mother, who 
persuaded him; to pass at least one hour each 
day, as nearly as possible, in the reading of 
such attainable good books as pleased his fancy, 
and through the formation of this habit or in- 
clination attained added strength with each ad- 
vancing year of his life. 

In 1894 the desire for more education had 
taken such a hold of his being that he arranged 
to attend the Brigham Young College, at Lo- 
gan, Utah, where he remained in diligent at- 
tendance and study for three years, paying at- 
tention to a complete acquisition of the knowl- 
edge of the common branches of education, 
but particularly devoting himself to the mas- 
tery of general and political history. In 1897 
he became a student of the Law Department of 
the University of Michigan, and was graduated 
therefrom in June, 1900. Thus amply rein- 
forced and equipped to> enter into the actual 
practice of law, Mr. Budge began to look 
around for a suitable place wherein to establish 
himself as an attorney, and, in August, 1900. 
opened an office at Logan, Utah. In January, 
1 90 1, conditions appearing more favorable for 
the rapid acquisition of clients in his old home 
county, Bear Lake, he removed thither and es- 
tablished his home and law office at Mont- 
pelier, where business soon began to come to 
him in a satisfactory measure. 



74 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



A gentleman of marked individuality, pos- 
itive and decided in regard to all of his convic- 
tions, social, professional or religious, Mr. 
Budge throws himself with great energy into 
the accomplishment of all objects with which 
he is allied, and it is easy to see that, being a 
Republican in his political views, he should use 
his strongest personal endeavors to bring about 
the success of his principles and policies. Nor 
was it strange, either, that in view of the rapid 
progress he was making in his profession, that 
he was nominated by his party's county con- 
vention in 1902 as its candidate for prosecuting 
attorney of Bear Lake county, receiving very 
complimentary election to that office in No- 
vember of that year, and he is now in its incum- 
bency. The duties of prosecuting attorney de- 
mand a residence at the county-seat, and, in 
January, 1903, Mr. Budge removed to Paris, 
where he is now residing. He is progressing 
finely in his legal business, acquiring steadily 
a valuable clientage of representative citizens, 
while he is recognized as being one of the most 
brilliant prosecuting attorneys with whose ser- 
vices the county has ever been favored. 

Mr. Budge is not a member of any "se- 
cret," political or social society, but has been 
from his birth a member of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in which he 
has rendered valuable and highly effective ser- 
vice in its Sunday school and musical organiza- 
tions, and also as a stake officer. He is per- 
sistent in his attempts to accomplish his pur- 
poses, but he has been a wise and law-abiding 
citizen, from his natural trend of thought, ven- 
erating the established institutions of his coun- 
try and reverencing his parents, toward whom 
he has ever manifested a loving and filial loy- 
alty. He is a great lover of music, and while 
a student at Ann Arbor, by way of recreation, 
took a special two-years course in voice cul- 
ture with a degree of success that has proved 
very gratifying to both himself and his large 



circle of friends. On May 27, 1903, at Salt 
Lake City, Utah, Mr. Budge and Miss Grace 
Hoff. of Montpelier, Idaho, were joined in 
holy matrimony. She is a daughter of Charles 
and Celestia A. (Bacon) Hoff. her parents 
being among the old citizens of Bear Lake 
county and Montpelier, where they now re- 
side, highly respected and esteemed. 

HON. D. W. STANDROD. 

The men of force and capacity, who take 
strong hold of the rugged conditions of life 
and mould them into successful and useful ca- 
reers, are entitled to all honor among their 
fellows, not only for the individual triumphs 
they win, but for the fruitful potency awak- 
ened and inspired by their examples. It is al- 
most a maxim that clearly defined purpose and 
consecutive efforts in the affairs of life will 
ultimately bring success, and in following the 
career of the prominent subject of this review, 
the observer will acquire much incentive and 
inspiration. Tbe qualities which have made 
Mr. Standrod one of the prominent financial 
powers of the state of Idaho, and the legal 
ability which he has manifested have brought 
him into connection with a wide range of va- 
rious classes of humanity and have won for 
him the universal esteem of his fellow men. 
His career has been one of well-directed en- 
ergy, strong determination, honorable methods 
and financial integrity. 

Hon. D. W. Standrod, now a prominent 
attorney, the vice-president of the First Na- 
tional Bank, of Pocatello. Idaho, and the pres- 
ident of the D. W. Standrod & Co. Bank of 
Blackfoot, Idaho, was born in Rock Castle, 
Ky., on August 12, 1859, a son of Dr. 
Samuel and Elvira (Campbell) Standrod. na- 
tives of the same state, the father being a 
physician and surgeon at Rock Castle, and a 
man of influence, public spirit and high char- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



77 



acter. Dr. Samuel Standrod was a son of Ba- 
sil and Rebecca (Rogers) Standrod, who in 
their native state of North Carolina owned a 
large plantation and many slaves, being of 
German extraction and of old Colonial stock. 
The mother of the subject of this review was a 
victim of the cholera epidemic of 1873. dying at 
the age of thirty-three years, the father later 
removing to the West and making his home in 
Malad, where he died in 1885, at the age of 
sixty years, and of their seven children only 
three attained mature years, and beside Mr. 
Standrod only one is now living, Mrs. Fran- 
ces Nicholas, of Ogden City, Utah. 

Hon. Drew W. Standrod received his pre- 
liminary literary education in the public 
schools of his native county, thereafter attend- 
ing Cadiz Institute, in the state of Kentucky, 
from which he was graduated in the class of 
1880, having paid attention to the technical 
studies preparatory to the legal profession and 
acquiring such proficiency therein that he was 
admitted to practice in the courts of the state, 
and he immediately thereafter came to Idaho 
and began the practice of law in Malad City, 
then the county seat of all this part of Idaho. 

His thorough knowledge of law, his accu- 
racy and painstaking attention to the minute 
details of his profession, and the ability with 
which he presented his cases to the court, at- 
tracted such attention that in 1886 his capabil- 
ity . for creditably holding important official 
place was recognized by his election as district 
attorney, being continued in this office by a 
re-election in 1888, and in his service display- 
ing such distinguished ability and manifesting 
such legal knowledge that in 1890 he was nom- 
inated and elected as district judge of the 
Fifth judicial district of the state, holding this 
office with such pronounced legal erudition and 
understanding of the equities of the causes 
that he was continued in this high position un- 
til 1899; in the meantime, in 1895, making his 
residence in Pocatello. 



After the expiration of his term of office as 
district judge, he opened a law office in Poca- 
tello and has since devoted his attention to the 
practice of law, having a clientage of more than 
ordinary character and acquiring a reputation 
as a wise counsellor, able advocate and success- 
ful lawyer. He has manifested marked finan- 
cial abilities; his services in the realm of 
finance has been in great demand, and he has 
been the vice-president of the First National 
Bank of Pocatello since 1897, is now president 
of the D. W. Standrod & Co.'s Bank of Black- 
foot and is a director of the private bank of 
J. N. Ireland & Co. at Malad City. 

Judge Standrod stands high in the councils 
of the Republican party; in 1896 and 1898 he 
was its candidate for supreme judge, making 
an aggressive canvass and receiving a very 
complimentary vote, while in 1900 he was the 
standard bearer of his party in the gubernator- 
ial race for the office, ever battling for the prin- 
ciples and policies that distinguish the party of 
his choice and supporting it with marked ability 
by his pen and on the stump in its successive 
campaigns. 

On September 24. 1888, Judge Standrod 
was united in matrimony with Miss Emma 
VanWormer, a native of the state of New 
York, and a daughter of John and Nancy 
(VanPatten) VanWormer, also natives of the 
state and descendants and sterling representa- 
tives of the old Knickerbocker stock of which 
President Roosevelt is also a conspicuous mem- 
ber. The family of Judge Standrod consists 
of two children : Elvira C. and Drew W. ; 
and in his beautiful home. No. 548 Garfield 
avenue, Pocatello, an atmosphere of culture 
and courteous hospitality is ever present, mak- 
ing it a center of enjoyment to a large num- 
ber of strong personal friends of the family, 
who esteem the Judge for his manifold excel- 
lent qualities of head and heart. 

Mrs. Standrod can claim one of the purest 
and earliest ancestral trees rooted on the civil- 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ization of the American continent, and the full 
history of the various families connected there- 
with would be the history of the state of New 
York from the first settlement of the Island of 
Manhattan down to its occupation by the Eng- 
lish and past the period of the war of the Rev- 
olution. Dominie Everhardus Bogardus, the 
first settled minister of the New Netherlands, 
the Dutch colony originally founded on the site 
of New York city, came to America from Hol- 
land in 1633, accompanying his personal friend, 
Gov. Wouter Van Twiller, and in New Am- 
sterdam immediately upon his arrival founded 
the first Dutch Reformed church of the New 
World, of which he was the honored and ven- 
erated pastor until his death. This sad event 
occurred by drowning on September 27, 1647, 
while he was making the outward voyage of a 
visit to Holland. His American residence and 
stable were located on what is now Broad 
street in New York city. One of this Bogar- 
dus family in a later generation was the Rev- 
erend Cornelius Bogardus, the founder and first 
pastor of the Dutch Reformed church of 
Schenectady, N. Y., his installation to that of- 
fice occurring in 1732. From him the line of 
descent is readily traced to Mrs. Standrod. 

Casper Van Wormer, also one of the ear- 
liest Hollanders to make settlement in the pic- 
turesque Hudson River Valley of New York, 
was the first American ancestor of Mrs. Stand- 
rod on the paternal side. His fine estate lay 
near or on the present site of Saugerties. and 
his wife was originally Miss Eva VanDyke, 
whose parents came from Holland, and were 
of the same family as the distinguished Fiscal 
VanDyke. who was the Colonial treasurer of 
the New Netherlands, and one of the two as- 
sociates of Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in his mete- 
oric government of the colony, being one of 
the leading factors of the Dutch supremacy in 
the country. 

Capt. John Van Patten was an honored 



Colonial officer in the Revolutionary war, and, 
through intermarriage, the brilliant Huguenot 
family of Conde became united with the Van 
Pattens. Anna Bogardus married with Adam 
Conde and became the great-grandmother of 
Mrs. Standrod. 

LYSANDER BROWN. 

In Bancroft's History of Utah it is said 
"As early as 184 1 the country around where 
the city of Ogden was laid out was held as a 
Spanish grant by Miles M. Goodyear, who 
built a fort, consisting of a stockade and a few 
log houses, near the confluence of the Weber 
and Ogden rivers. On the 6th of June. 1848. 
James Brown of the Battalion, coming from 
California with $5,000, mostly in gold dust, 
purchased the tract from Goodyear. The tract 
is described as commencing at the mouth of 
Weber Canyon, following the base of the 
mountains north of the hot springs, thence 
westward to the Great Sail Lake, along the 
southern shore of the lake to a point opposite 
Weber Canyon, and thence to the place of be- 
ginning. Colonel Brown was soon dispatched 
on mission work to the Eastern states and his 
name appears no more in connection with Og- 
den or its development : however, in August. 
1850, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball. Or- 
son Hyde and others laid out the city of Og- 
den." 

Col. James Brown was a grandfather of 
the Lvsander Brown of this review, who was 
born at Ogden, on February 13, 1857, a son of 
Alexander and Amanda (McMurtry) Brown, 
natives of North Carolina, who came to Utah 
in 1847, later having an interest in the Spanish 
grant spoken of above, and they are still resid- 
ing at Ogden. the father being seventy-eight 
years old and the mother seventy. 

Lvsander Brown commenced his business 
career at thirteen years of ag'e by carrying 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



79 



water for one year in the charcoal camp at 
Bingham Canyon, then drove a "bull team" for 
a definite period of time and thereafter "rode 
the range" until 1899, coming to the Snake 
River Valley of Idaho in 1888 and purchasing 
a herd of cattle and conducting stock opera- 
tions here until he sold out and engaged in the 
saloon business at Lorenzo, which he sold 
three years later, on December 22, 1902. 

The first marriage of Mr. Brown was with 
Miss Anna Rice, on July 3, 1877, her parents 
being William and Ann (Rose) Rice, and their 
children are William L., born on December 
22, 1878, and Grace, born on October 10, 
1880. The second marriage was with Miss 
Rachel Rice, a younger sister of his first wife, 
on July 16, 1886, and of this union have been 
born two children, James A., born on March 
12, 1889, and Lewis E., born on January 17. 
1892. 

In all that relates to the substantial im- 
provement and the material interests of the 
community of his residence, Mr. Brown is an 
earnest coadjutor, and in social life a strong 
friend and boon companion, having a large 
following of personal friends, being in po- 
litical relations independent of either of the 
leading parties. 

PRESTO BURRELL. 

The life stories of the hardy pioneers whose 
courage, .industry and common-sense have 
transformed this great western country from 
savage wilderness to systematic productiveness 
is ever an interesting theme. The gentleman 
whose name heads this review was a pioneer 
of Idaho in 1863 and among the earliest to up- 
lift the banner of civilization in that portion 
where he established his home, and he has been 
closely identified with its growth and develop- 
ment from that time to the present, and none 
has contributed more to the upbuilding of the 



institutions of the state, for among the very 
earliest of the pioneers who have seen the wil- 
derness change by civilization into' a great and 
prosperous state with thousands of happy 
homes, but yet affording opportunities for 
thousands more to possess homes and add to 
its population, its wealth and their own pros- 
perity, was Presto Burrell, who was born of a 
race of pioneers. 

His parents, David and Achsah (Faulkner) 
Burrell, were natives of New York, and mem- 
bers of a band of pioneers who in the first 
quarter of the Nineteenth Century made claim 
and occupancy on the fertile lands of Illinois, 
their family home being there located in 1818 
and the father passing long years as an indus- 
trious millwright and farmer. 

Mr. Burrell was born in White county, 
Illinois, on September 5, 1829, and his educa- 
tional advantages at school were very limited, 
he, however, acquiring a competent knowledge 
and valuable education in the hard and 
thorough school of experience, whose lessons 
bring quickness of perception, readiness of ac- 
tion and knowledge of men and their elements 
of character. Attaining his manhood in 
Illinois, he there passed the time quietly en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits until 1854, when 
he came west to Gold Canyon, then Oregon 
Territory, now the state of Nevada, thence in 
1855 removing to California, there being iden- 
tified with the mining of gold until 1861, when 
at the call of his country he enlisted in the 
Union army under Colonel P. Edward Connor 
in Company H, Third California Infantry, on 
September 26. 1861, at Mokelumne Hill, Calif. 
From Mokelumne the company was sent to the 
camp of instruction at Stockton. Calif., where 
they camped until winter set in. then the com- 
mand went to Benicia, Calif., where they re- 
mained until the following May, when they 
went back to Stockton, where the company re- 
mained until July 12, 1862. when it started 



8o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



for Salt Lake City, arriving there on October 
12th, of the same year. From there it went 
directly to the bench where Fort Douglas now 
stands and established that post. Mr. Burrell 
was on guard duty that day and posted the 
first sentinel at that place. From Fort Doug- 
las, in 1863, the company proceeded to Soda 
Springs, Idaho, as an escort to protect the 
Morrisites. Here he was engaged in connec- 
tion with his regiment in the erection of Fort 
Connor, and after an efficient and soldier-like 
career, at the termination of the time of his 
enlistment he was honorably discharged at 
Salt Lake City in October, 1864. 

Mr. Burrell then returned to Soda Springs, 
from there later removing to Wyoming, where 
for a number of years he was employed at Salt 
Springs; thereafter, in 1870, coming to the 
location where he now resides and locating on 
lands which had recently been surveyed, later 
filing claim on a homestead, and here he now 
owns 320 acres of land having all the elements 
of fertility that is possible to the rich virgin 
soil, and here he has been engaged in the de- 
velopment of his property and in the various 
departments connected with husbandry. His 
care, skill and attention has brought into ex- 
istence one of the finest orchards of the entire 
state and his excellent herds of horses, cattle 
and sheep find ample feed on the wide range 
which he controls, while his crops bountifully 
recompense the industry, care and attention 
which their proprietor bestows upon them. 

Mr. Burrell has ever been noted for his 
prominent interest and action in public affairs 
of a local nature and of every character. He is 
a stockholder in the Snake River Valley Irriga- 
tion Canal Co., while he was a member of the 
first board of county commissioners of Oneida 
county, Idaho. In the early times his exper- 
iences were numerous and interesting, for the 
country was filled with wild beasts and hostile 
Indians, but his great courage, prudence. 



shrewdness, and knowledge of the country 
were of inestimable value to him and he has 
become noted throughout a large acquaintance- 
ship as one of the best types of the early men 
of this section of the Rocky Mountains. 

At Blackfoot, Idaho, in 1880, Mr. Burrell 
was united in marriage with Mrs. Elizabeth 
Robb, a native of Canada, and their four chil- 
dren are, Achsah J., Prescott, Margaret and 
Bernice. Mr. Burrell is an old and highly re- 
spected citizen, not only of his county, but of 
this entire section of the state; and although 
his life has been full of busy activity, he is still 
as eager in business and as interested in public 
affairs as in his younger days. 

Among all of the many pleasant experi- 
ences that have so often come to him along the 
pathway of an eminently useful life, none occu- 
pies a higher place in his memory than the 
notable Fourth day of July, 1862, in Stockton, 
when the patriotic citizens of that beautiful 
city gave a magnificent dinner to the members 
of his company, as an ovation to cheer them 
before they departed for Salt Lake City. To 
this day he never thinks of California but the 
memorv of that repast comes like a benediction 
and the eloquent address made on that occa- 
sion by that gifted orator, Rev. Starr King, is 
brought forcibly to his mind, whose sterling 
presentations of the duties of patriotic citizens 
and soldiers fully harmonize with Mr. Bur- 
rell's life and activities. 

ROBERT LEE BYBEE. 

Commanding uniform confidence and es- 
teem, there is no man in Bingham county who 
occupies a more enviable position in industrial, 
social and political circles than Robert L. 
Bybee, not alone on account of the exceptional 
success which he has achieved, but for the hon- 
orable, straightforward business policy he has 
ever followed. He possesses untiring energy,. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



is quick of perception, forms his plans readily 
and is determined in their execution, so that 
on this score his marked success in connection 
with industrial, political and mercantile enter- 
prises of wide scope and importance may be 
taken as a natural sequel; but above these are 
the integrity of character and fidelity o<f pur- 
pose which have gained for him the respect of 
all with whom he has come in contact during 
the long years of his residence in Idaho, of 
which he may be justly designated as a pioneer. 

Senator Bybee descends from early Colo- 
nial ancestors who were residents in Virginia 
at and before the stirring phases of the Revo- 
lutionary war, with which they were prom- 
inently connected in both civil and military 
affairs; his own birth, however, occurred in 
Clay county. Indiana, on May 4, 1838, being 
a son of Byram and Betsy (Lane) Bybee, the 
father being a native of Barren county, 
Ky., where he attained manhood, married 
and had children. In 1847 ne joined the Mor- 
mon church and removed to Missouri, whence, 
in 1851, he crossed the plains to Utah, settling 
in Weber county, where he died in 1864. 

John Bybee, who was a native of Virginia, 
emigrated to Kentucky in his early manhood, 
while his grandfather, Buford Bybee, ever re- 
sided in Virginia. The mother of Senator 
Bybee was a native of Tennessee, although her 
marriage to Mr. Bybee occurred in Kentucky. 
She accompanied her husband on the long, 
wearisome journey across the plains to Utah, 
where she died at Smithfield, on May 7, 1867, 
at the age of sixty-six years. Of her thirteen 
children, nine attained maturity. She was the 
daughter of David Lane, who was a native of 
Tennessee. Senator Bybee has but slight rec- 
ollection of the state of his birth, for at the 
age of five years he accompanied the family to 
Kentucky and from there he removed to Ill- 
inois, later, to Missouri, and in 1851 he ac- 
companied his parents to Utah ; the country at 



that early pioneer period being extremely 
sparsely settled, the first company of Mormons 
locating on the shores of Salt Lake in 1847, 
only four years before the arrival of his father's 
family. 

It was an unprepossessing and unpromising 
country that presented itself to the Bybee fam- 
ily when they located on Weber River, seven 
miles distant from the site of the present pros- 
perous city of Ogden. The country was wild 
and the land covered with bunch grass, the only 
forest trees being the willows that bordered 
the streams. The rich grass however fur- 
nished nutritious food for the cattle, and 
stockraising and primitive farming were the 
occupations of these early settlers. Such were 
the conditions of life on the paternal ranch 
where Senator Bybee was diligently employed 
until his marriage to Jane Miller on March 19, 

I857- 

" Making Utah the scene of his individual 
efforts. Mr. Bybee there continued to abide 
until 1883, when he moved to Idaho; previous 
to this event, however, his second marriage 
occurred to Harriet Raymond; and incidentally 
we will remark that at the time of Senator 
Bybee's first marriage the mail from Salt 
Lake to Independence, Mo., was furnished 
by pack horses that made monthly trips, and 
Senator Bybee at that time made the trip, 
starting for the East in April and returning in 
August, the journey occupying forty days, 
owing to the accumulated snow on the moun- 
tains, but the return was made in only twenty 
days. 

In 1858, Senator Bybee was a member of a 
company of 150 men which went from Ogden, 
Utah, to the vicinity of Salmon City, in Lemhi 
county, Idaho, to bring back to Utah a number 
of families of Mormon settlers, who had been 
attacked by Indians and many of their number 
killed. They broke up the settlement and 
brought the survivors to Utah, and at that time 



82 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



there was not a house in the entire Snake River 
valley except the government station of Fort 
Hall, which was located near the present site 
of Pocatello; and the first wagon that went 
down the Port Neuf canyon was part of this 
expedition. In 1861 Senator Bybee made the 
first trip made to Carson City, Nevada, with 
an ox team, his lading being eggs and salt, fol- 
lowing the trail made by the Forty-niners on 
their route to California, and during his stay 
in Carson City the first overland coach left that 
place for the East. 

In 1883 Senator Bybee made his res- 
idence in Idaho, locating his home at Menan, 
remaining there four years, taking up new 'land 
and being engaged in ranching ; at the termin- 
ation of that period removing to Leorin, his 
present home, where he has a finely located 
ranch of 640 acres, improved, irrrigated, and 
furnished with a capacious residence of mod- 
ern design and structure, suitable outbuildings, 
barns, corrals, etc., for his extensive agricul- 
tural operations, which consist of the raising 
of grain, alfalfa, horses, cattle and sheep of 
superior breeds, and he also is paying special 
attention to the raising of fruit. 

In politics Senator Bybee has ever been a 
stalwart advocate of Democracy, and an active 
worker in the cause of his party, being consid- 
ered by the people an upright man of sterling 
character, whose aim in life is to do well and 
thoroughly whatever his conscience indicates 
is right. In the advocacy of measures in the 
interest of the people, he has been ever earnest 
and persistent, and is always found arrayed in 
the support of all legislation serving' the legiti- 
mate interests of the citizens. His services 
have not lacked popular recognition, as he was 
nominated and elected on the Fusion ticket in 
1890 to represent his district in the state sen- 
ate. He is a man of strong individuality, tak- 
ing an intelligent interest in the questions and 
interests of the day, fortifying his convictions 



by careful study and investigation, at all times 
willing and able to give a reason for his belief 
and action in clear, concise and effective lan- 
guage. His religious faith is that of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

The first wife of Senator Bybee died on 
June 27, 1870, at the age of twenty-nine years, 
she being the mother of five children. Robert 
L., deceased, Francis M., James A., Mary A. 
and Elizabeth. The second marriage has re- 
sulted in fourteen children, whose names in or- 
der of birth are as follows : William, de- 
ceased, David, Harriet, Clarinda, Alonzo, de- 
ceased, Rhoda. Walter, Minnie. Jesse M.. de- 
ceased, Ida, Stanley, Leslie, Venla. deceased, 
and Harold. 

We can in no better manner conclude this 
sketch than to use the words of another : 
"Senator Bybee has never utilized his political 
capacity for dress parade only. Everyone 
knows where to find Robert Lee Bybee." He 
is a man of superior presence, kindly yet digni- 
fied and courteous to all. Socially, financially 
and morally, he stands high among the people 
of the state and enjoys the esteem and friend- 
ship of a wide circle of business and personal 
associates. 

MAJOR A. F. CALDWELL. 

The debt of gratitude which our country 
owes to her brave sons who fought heroically 
on many a dreadful field of battle on Southern 
soil in the great Civil war, who suffered the 
untold hardships and privations of a soldier's 
life, and who bore sickness, woes and neglect 
in camp and hospital unflinchingly and uncom- 
plainingly, is a debt which cannot ever be fully 
repaid, and we turn with feelings of pride to 
trace the record of Major A. F. Caldwell, now 
the efficient incumbent of the important office 
of United States Indian agent of the Fort Hail 
Reservation and Agency, and one of the rep- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



83 



resentative citizens of Bannock county, Idaho. 
In tracing the history of his ancestors we 
find that the family occupies space in the rec- 
ords of Scotland and of England as connected 
with honorable deeds of valor and industrial en- 
terprises of great pith and moment. He was 
born in Warren county, 111., on January 2, 
1846, a son of Thomas J. and Mary A. (Allen) 
Caldwell, his parents being respectively natives 
of Ohio and Illinois, the paternal grandfather 
coming from his native state in 1840, and unit- 
ing his fortunes with the illustrious band of the 
early Illinois pioneers. Major Caldwell re- 
ceived a practical education in the excellent pub- 
lic schools of his native county and was identi- 
fied with agricultural operations in Illinois until 
May, 1863, when he enlisted as a member of 
Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth 
Illinois Infantry, and followed the eventful for- 
tunes of that historic organization in the Army 
of the Cumberland, participating in important 
battles and numerous exciting skirmishes, win- 
ning honor and promotion by his gallantry, 
and receiving an honorable discharge from 
service in October, 1864. 

He thereafter engaged in farming in Illi- 
nois until 188 1, which was the date of his ad- 
vent in Idaho, where he made his home at Ox- 
ford until 1887, thence removing to Pocatello, 
where he was connected with the post-trader's 
store until 1894, thereafter most capably hold- 
ing the position of deputy sheriff for four years, 
and, in 1897, receiving the appointment of post- 
master of Pocatello, being the highly popular 
incumbent of that office until February, 1899, 
when he tendered his resignation to accept the 
appointment of United States agent at the Fort 
Hall Indian Agency, which responsible posi- 
tion he has since held uninterruptedly, having 
the record of being a very efficient and capable 
officer, a noticeable progress in the civilization 
of the Indians having occurred under his wise 
and judicious administration. 



In public affairs Major Caldwell has long 
taken a prominent part as a stanch member of 
the Republican party, voting for every presi- 
dential candidate presented by that organiza- 
tion from his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Grand Army 
of the Republic, being affiliated with the 
George A. Custer Post, of Pocatello, and he is 
also identified with the Benevolent and Protect- 
ive Order of Elks. In wedded life Major Cald- 
well has enjoyed most felicitous relations 
through his marriage, on November 3, 1869, 
in Illinois, with Miss Clara Gilman, whose 
American ancestors, like those of her husband, 
reach back to early Colonial days, the family 
being then prominent in civil and military life, 
while in every generation since it has been ably 
represented in the fields of statesmanship, com- 
mercial and industrial endeavors, and in prom- 
inent social life. Three children round out and 
complete the family circle, Fred G., a promi- 
nent citizen of Pocatello, Ora A., and Uletta. 
Accustomed to self-support, self-reliance and 
personal independence, the progress Major 
Caldwell has made, and the preferments with 
which he has been favored, have been based 
solely upon his merits and his unquestioned 
qualifications for the various positions that he 
has so honorably held, and never in his whole 
career of business or public life has he been rec- 
reant to even the most trivial trust, while his 
actions have been guided by the ethics of the 
highest honor, personal integrity and a suave 
and courteous demeanor, which have given him 
a high standing among the best people of his 
county and state, irrespective of political bias 
or creed. This is the expression of his charac- 
ter given by those people who have known him 
the longest and the most intimately. It is also 
eminently proper to say in this connection that 
the Major is one of the cleanest types of the 
representative self-made men of today, and 
fully worthy of the esteem so largely reposed 



8 4 



PROGRESSI]' E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



in him. In innumerable ways he has shown 
that he is a man of true public spirit, success- 
ful financial enterprise and progress, and a gen- 
tleman in all that the highest conception of the 
term implies. He is deservedly popular, his 
friends being found in all classes of the people, 
while the family stands high in social circles, 
the home being a center of a most gracious hos- 
pitality. 

HENRY O. HARKNESS. 

While in manners and social life a genial 
and unostentatious gentleman. Mr. Harkness is 
well known throughout a wide extent of coun- 
try as a man of remarkable business capacity, 
advanced thought, clear and incisive foresight 
and tenacious and resolute purpose, possessing 
the highest type of sagacity, ingenuity and 
firmness in overcoming obstacles in the way of 
his enterprises, and he is also noted for skill- 
full}- holding his own against flood-tides of op- 
position, scoring success when other strong 
men have gone down, and it is well understood 
that his success has been the legitimate result 
of his own ability, integrity and quiet perse- 
verance. He has for years occupied a most 
prominent place in the ranks of the representa- 
tive men of Montana and Idaho, and the rec- 
ord of his career in this compilation will be 
read with pleasure by a large circle of his inti- 
mate friends. Henry O. Harkness, now the 
leading factor of the thriving town of McCam- 
mon. where is located the center of his large 
industrial activities, was born on May 28, 1835. 
at Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, being the 
son of Abner and Nancy (Garrett) Harkness. 
both descendants of the best New England cit- 
izenship. His father came from his native 
state of Vermont to the new lands of Huron 
county, Ohio, in 1825, there, aided by his super- 
ior wife, developing from the heavy forests by 
his untiring: industry and thrift a fine farm. 



His death occurred in Norwalk in September, 
1882, his wife surviving him until January, 
1884. 

Until the age of nineteen years the sub- 
ject of this review remained on the homestead 
farm, acquiring, under the tutelage of his par- 
ents, those qualities of head and heart that are 
so characteristic of New England, learn- 
ing that honest toil only dignifies a man and 
that "honesty is ever the best policy" in all 
things. He thereafter learned the trade of a 
machinist in Sandusky, and at the age of twen- 
ty-two came westward to Watauga county. 111., 
there associating himself with an older brother 
in farming and a coal business, continuing to 
be thus employed until September. 1861, when 
he responded to President Lincoln's call for 
troops, enlisting as a private in the Washburn 
Lead-mine Regiment, which was mustered into 
the Eederal sen-ice as the Forty-fifth Illinois 
Infantry. In this historic organization he 
served for four years in the hottest of the 
fighting of the greatest war known to history, 
participating in some of the severest battles and 
by steady promotion attaining the rank of cap- 
tain, with which title he was honorably dis- 
charged at the close of the war on June 12. 
1865. Incidentally in this connection we will 
state that Mr. Harkness was one of five broth- 
ers who served in the Union army through the 
entire Civil war. two of them including- Mr. 
Harkness. being wounded, one taken prisoner 
and all receiving honorable discharges. 

Not long after his return to civil life Mr. 
Harkness decided to make the West the field 
of his business endeavors and at Atchison. 
Kans.. in 1866, he purchased a freighting out- 
fit of four wagons and ten yokes of oxen. 
Loading with merchandise, he crossed the plains 
to Montana, where he located a ranch in the 
Madison Valley, embarking in stock-raising. 
The winter proved one of exceptional severity 
and the intense cold destroved all his cattle. 







^V^ UsUZ^iL^i 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



87 



Selling his wagons and merchandise, he went to 
Salmon River country of Idaho, passing the 
summer of 1867 at Salmon City, and becom- 
ing acquainted with the country and its oppor- 
tunities, in the fall leasing the Beaver Canyon 
toll road in the northern part of Oneida county 
and conducting this for two years. In the 
spring of 1870 he came to Portneuf and en- 
gaged in stockraising in connection with the 
toll road. In 1874 he was nominated and 
elected as a Republican to the important office 
of county commissioner of Oneida county, 
discharging the multiform duties of the at-that- 
time engrossing office with great credit for six 
years. 

By this time his commercial activity had 
brought him into connection with various forms 
of business, and in 1876 he formed an associa- 
tion for banking purposes with J. W. Guthrie 
and J. M. Langsdorf, under the firm title of 
J. W. Guthrie & Co., establishing a bank at 
Corinne, Utah, then the chief supply point for 
Montana and other northern country, and until 
1878 the business was very prosperous. That 
year saw the completion of the Utah Northern 
Railroad, furnishing a new and more speedy av- 
enue of shipment to the territory supplied be- 
fore from Corinne by freighters, and the 
freighting business was discontinued and much 
of the life of the town went out. The banking 
industry was then transferred to Ogden, one 
year later Mr. Harkness purchasing the inter- 
est of the senior partner and changing the firm- 
name to Harkness & Co., which it retains. 

In January, 188 1, the toll road was opened 
as a free road and Mr. Harkness devoted more 
attention to' his farming interests. His landed 
estate now consists of 1,600 -acres of land in 
Round Valley near Oxford, which is utilized 
as a range for his large herds of finely bred 
cattle and sheep, as well as the large acreage 
of valuable land he holds in fee simple at Mc- 
Cammon and its vicinity. In early years he 



raised large crops of potatoes, but now makes 
a specialty of wheat, of which his annual crop 
numbers many bushels. He is als'o the owner 
of an up-to-date roller flouring mill at Mc- 
Cammon, having a capacity of 2,000 barrels a 
day. Farther than this Mr. Harkness is the 
proprietor of a finely equipped hotel at McCam- 
mon, where he makes his home. 

On August 11, 1871, Mr. Harkness wedded 
with Mrs. Catherine Murphy, whose maiden 
name was Scott. She died on December 28, 
1898, and on October 5, 1899, Mr. Harkness 
married Miss Sarah Scott, and they have two 
children, Henrietta and Katie. Aimong the 
representative men of southern Idaho, men of 
high and commanding intellect, men of busi- 
ness force and earnestness, of financial skill and 
sound practical judgment, having and main- 
taining most harmonious and pleasant relations 
with all with whom he comes into contact, 
there are none the superior, and but few the 
equal in point of ability, of H. O. Harkness, of 
McCammon. 

BEN E. CAMPBELL. 

Perhaps the struggles toward a financial in- 
dependence under the discouraging conditions 
of pioneer existence with no- capital to make the 
way easy, can be no better shown than in 
briefly tracing the career of Ben E. Campbell, 
now a well-to-do farmer of the La Belle district 
of Fremont county, Idaho. With the Scotch 
perseverance and persistent energy transmit- 
ted to him through generation after generation 
of rugged Scotch Highland ancestors he has 
steadily and sturdily pressed on until he has 
attained an actual prosperity, a valuable estate 
and is a stockman of impoi'tance in the upper 
valley of the Snake River. He was born at 
Port Allegany, Pa., on June 9, 1850, son of 
Daniel and Maria (Cady) Campbell, who were 
also natives of the same state, their Scotch 



88 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



forefathers coming across the Atlantic at an 
earlier day in the history of the commonwealth, 
and the father combined farming with his 
principal business of lumbering in the heavy 
pine forests of the Allegheny River section un- 
til i860, when he came west, locating in Iowa 
City, Iowa, where for three years he engaged 
in trucking in the city, their finances once being 
reduced so low that they were forced to> develop 
a new industry, and, borrowing fifty cents, they 
purchased a bushel of apples which they sold as 
eating apples in small quantities, from this 
small beginning obtaining sufficient money to 
purchase a yoke of oxen and a cow, and in 
March, 1863, they started for Utah in Captain 
Brown's ox train company, the subject of this 
review walking all of the long distance across 
the plains. 

On the way the company was stopped by 
Indians, but by furnishing them a good meal 
they went away, giving no further trouble. 
The family located in Ogden Valley among the 
earliest settlers, enduring privations which 
would have discouraged less resolute people, or 
those unsustained by religious faith, often be- 
ing frightened by visits of hostile Indians and 
experiencing much suffering in bringing the 
necessary food to keep the family from starv- 
ing in the deep snows of winter, the subject of 
this sketch on one occasion having both his 
feet badly frozen while "packing" flour to the 
home in his bare feet. Patiently the family en- 
dured their trials, steadily their industry met 
its reward, and here they resided until 1890, 
when they moved to Lewisville, Idaho, where 
the father died in the spring of 1895. when sev- 
enty-two years of age, and the mother is now 
living with her son, having lived seventy-eight 
years of very industrious existence. 

Ben E. Campbell came to Idaho early in 
1886 and located on the island east of La Belle 
townsite, living there five years, then purchas- 
ing- a ranch of 153 acres adjoining the townsite 



of La Belle on the east, where he has since 
made his home and is prosperously engaged in 
general farming operations and in the raising 
of horses and cattle. In the years of 1891. 
1892 and 1893 he carried the mail daily over 
the route between La Belle and Idaho Falls, 
and. as there were no bridges over the river, 
he was forced many times to swim his horse 
across the swollen stream, but during the three 
years' service he missed but one trip, when his 
horse absolutely refused to cross the river. On 
one occasion he stood in the ice-cold water up 
to his arms to chop away the ice that prevented 
his team from crossing, and many such experi- 
ences now come to his memory. The first year 
of his residence at La Belle he hauled all of his 
flour from the Cache Valley of L T tah. and. in 
fact, much of the time of the second and third 
year the family lived on bread made from the 
flour of frozen wheat and on deer meat. Mr. 
Campbell has ever been active in the public im- 
provements and developments of the country, 
has done his part in the creation of irrigating 
canals and ditches, and is a consistent member 
of the Mormon church, being ordained a deacon 
two years after his arrival in Utah, while he 
was later at North Ogden ordained a priest 
under Bishop Maycox. 

It was a congenial, and for Mr. Campbell 
a fortunate, marriage which he consummated 
on April 14, 1873, with Miss Amelia Cady, a 
daughter of Oliver and Phoebe Ann ( Camp- 
bell) Cady, of Portage Creek, McKean county. 
Pa., where she was born on August 28, 1857. 
Her mother dying when she was but six 
months old she was reared by her aunt. Miran- 
da Campbell. Her father still resides at Port- 
age, McKean county. Pa., at eighty-two years 
of age. Mrs. Campbell is ever at the call of 
the people in case of sickness and is recognized 
as the best nurse in the region. Fourteen chil- 
dren have been born of this union, namely : 
Daniel, on September 28. 1873; Maria, on Oc- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



89 



tober 27, 1874; Phoebe Ann died in infancy; 
Patience, on June 11, 1877; Sylvia, on Septem- 
ber 11, 1881 ; Ada A., born April 23, 1883, died 
aged four years ; Ethen, on July 2^, 1885 ; 
Adolph, on February 11, 1890; Alvina, on June 
4, 1894; Alphonso, born May 4, 1896, died of 
typhoid fever at four years of age. 

LUTHER MARTIN CAPPS. 

One of the prosperous and leading repre- 
sentative ranchmen of Bingham county, Idaho, 
is the gentleman whose name heads this review, 
whose extensive and highly productive ranch 
of over 1,250 acres is located in the vicinity of 
Blackfoot, where he is extensively engaged in 
stock operations of great scope and importance, 
running fine herds of valuable breeds of horses, 
cattle and sheep, and being one of the leading 
agriculturists of this section of the state. 

Mr. Capps was born on January 12, 1863, 
in the state of Alabama, being the son of Mar- 
tin V. and Sara E. (Box) Capps, natives of 
Georgia, where the father was born, in the 
southern part of the state, in 1799, becoming 
an early settler of Henry county, Alabama, in 
1855, there conducting successful plantation op- 
erations and standing high in public affairs, at- 
taining influence in political, fraternal and other 
circles of society, as a Democrat being elected 
to various offices, and for a number of terms 
as a member of the legislature, while he has 
been prominent also in the Masonic fraternity. 
He has been for the last several years the ef- 
ficient president of the First National Bank of 
Abbeville, where he still maintains his resi- 
dence. His wife, born in 1887, died in Abbe- 
ville in 1901. leaving eight children : Daniel 
W., Luther M., John A., William J., Borealis, 
Cordelia, James W. and Addie. 

Luther M. Capps received his early educa- 
tional discipline in the Abbeville, Alabama, 
schools, thereafter continuing his studies in the 



East Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical 
College, being duly graduated therefrom after 
diligent study during the full college course of 
four years' time. In 1886 he received an ap- 
pointment to a position in the Indian depart- 
ment of the United States government, and, 
in pursuance of the duties connected therewith, 
he came to Fort Hall, Idaho, where he re- 
mained in the superintendency of the. indus- 
trial and agricultural departments of the Indian 
schools for three years, in the meantime pur- 
chasing 170 acres of land, the nucleus of his 
present magnificent estate, to which he has 
added until he now owns an extended area of 
over 1,250 acres of land, which is in a very sat- 
isfactory state of improvement, much of the 
land under the energetic and capable supervi- 
sion of Mr. Capps being developed from a 
sagebrush wilderness. The marks of his taste, 
capability and clear understanding of the proper 
measures to treat the conditions connected with 
successful agriculture and stockraising in this 
section of the great West, are visible in every 
part of his large estate, demonstrating his thor- 
ough knowledge and practical ability, while his 
capabilities in the various lines of agriculture 
have been recognized by the United States gov- 
ernment. He has been the very capable Idaho 
correspondent of the United States agricultural 
department for several years. 

An unswerving Democrat in politics, Mr. 
Capps is prominent in the councils of his party 
and was nominated and elected as its candidate 
for one term in the state Legislature in 1896. 
He also belongs to the fraternal society of the 
Modern Woodmen of America. He has given 
much thought and attention to the subject of 
irrigation and through his broad understand- 
ing of this subject he has transformed the orig- 
inal desert wilderness of his estate into pro- 
ductive areas, being also the superintendent of 
a large irrigation company for a definite term 
of years. 



9 o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



On March 20, 1891, Mr. Capps married 
Miss Elizabeth Mackie, a lady of Scotch ex- 
traction and a daughter of Robert and Mary E. 
(Conner) Mackie, who were natives of Scot- 
land, herself being born in Minnesota. For 
her ancestral history see sketch of Robert 
Mackie elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and 
Mrs. Capps' family consists of five children : 
Luther V., Robert 0., Mary L., and Alice E. 
and Edgar, twins. 

CLAUDE M. CARLYLE. 

Every person of intelligence, industry and 
capability who has located anywhere in the 
stock-raising section of southeastern Idaho, and 
especially in the rapidly growing and prosper- 
ous settlements of Bingham and Fremont coun- 
ties, has not failed to receive bountiful results 
for labor expended in any of the departments of 
the chief industries of this section, so noted 
for farming and stockraising. Mr. C. M. Car- 
lyle is no exception to the rule, and from his 
earliest labors he has been prospered, and 
stands today one of the representative men of 
Bingham county, having a valuable estate of 
160 acres, being successful in his agricultural 
efforts, and enjoying the esteem of his associ- 
ates, well meriting the success which has come 
to him as the result of his industry, his Durham 
cattle being fine specimens of the breed. 

Mr. Carlyle was born on October 6, 1868, 
at Blackburn, Mo., a son of Alexander and Al- 
mira Carlyle, his parents being natives of Ken- 
tucky, he attaining his majority in his native 
state, and the father crossing the plains with a 
freighting outfit from Nebraska City to Utah 
in 1870. where he was prosperously engaged 
in freighting operations extending northwardly 
from Utah into Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. 
His death occurred at an advanced age in Utah. 
The mother came to Utah from Kentucky with 
her parents when she was four years of age. 



She was the mother of three children, one of 
whom, Mrs. B. Small, resides in Kansas City. 
After her death, Claude M. Carlyle returned to 
the Eastern states and remained until he was 
seventeen years of age, when he returned to the 
West, and, having determined to follow agri- 
culture as a pursuit, located upon a homestead 
of 160 acres, finely situated fifteen miles east of 
Idaho Falls, where he at once gave his ener- 
getic efforts to farming and stockraising, and 
he is still residing there, owning a fine ranch 
and being prospered in his undertakings, while 
he is considered a reputable citizen and a valu- 
able member of society, his friends being nu- 
merous and his influence of value. 

On June 30, 1891, Mr. Carlyle was united' 
in marriage with Miss Maggie Smith, a native 
of Montana and daughter of George Smith. 
They have one child, Alexander. Greatly in- 
terested in everything pertaining to the prog- 
ress and welfare of the community. Mr. Car- 
lyle politically is allied with the Democratic 
party, with whose principles and policies he is 
earnestly in sympathy, supporting its candi- 
dates by vote and personal influence in every 
successive campaign. 

CARL J. CANNON. 

When a young man leaves his native land 
to begin a new life in a foreign country, where 
the language and customs are entirely differ- 
ent, he requires to be possessed of unusual emir- 
age and perseverance, and in many cases he be- 
comes discouraged and returns to his mother 
country. Such, however, was not the case with 
Carl J. Cannon, a well-known business man of 
Pocatello, Idaho, and a former bishop of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, who, persevering 
in his undertakings, would not allow himself to 
l>ecome discouraged, onlv working the harder 
to obtain mastery of the situation. To such men 
success surely comes sooner of later, and the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



9i 



generous public ever accords admiration and 
commendation to them. The birth of Bishop 
Cannon occurred in the far-off land of Sweden 
on August 25, 1841, being the son of John A. 
and Anna C. (Carlson) Cannon, both repre- 
sentatives of families long identified with the 
national life of Sweden. 

Bishop Cannon, the eldest of a family of 
ten children, received an excellent education in 
the government schools of his native land and 
thoroughly qualified himself under the capable 
instruction of his father in all branches of the 
tailoring business, in 1870 emigrating to the 
United States, where until 1874 he diligently 
pursued his trade in New York City, thence go- 
ing to Salt Lake City and continuing tailoring 
operations until 1888, when he established the 
first tailor shop of Pocatello, Idaho, where he is 
now located in commodious apartments for 
business under the Pocatello National Bank. 
Diligent industry, painstaking care and strictly 
honest dealings with his patrons have caused 
his business to steadily grow under his man- 
agement and they cannot fail to be pleased with 
the well-selected stock which he carries, and 
with his uniform courtesy and evident desire 
to meet their wishes. Bishop Cannon was mar- 
ried in Sweden in July, 1868, with Miss Hul- 
dah W. Stopendahl, and from this union has 
resulted nine children, John, who died at Poca- 
tello at the age of twenty- four years, Hannah, 
Ellen, Charles, Huldah, Jennie, Joseph, Carrie 
and August. 

• Bishop Cannon is a stalwart Republican, 
unwavering in the support of his party and he 
has been accorded recognition for his capability 
for an intelligent discharge of the duties of 
public office by receiving the nomination of his 
party for several prominent offices. In church 
relations he is highly esteemed, and from 1891, 
the time of the organization of the Pocatello 
ward, he with wise discretion and great capa- 
bility discharged the important duties of the 



office of bishop until he resigned the office in 
1902. Commencing with a very few members, 
under his sagacious administration the number 
increased until in 1903 it consists of over 600 
members, while a new church edifice of mod- 
ern design and architecture, costing $13,000, 
was planned and placed in construction. Bishop 
Cannon has shown himself particularly active 
in supporting all measures for the advancement 
of the church and the community and is a 
highly respected citizen, standing as a wise 
counsellor, sagacious in maintaining and pre- 
serving the cordiality and enthusiasm that are 
the vital factors in the true progress of the 
community. 

ANTOINE E. CHRISTENSEN. 

Antoine E. Christensen, a well-known 
farmer and stockman of near Shelley, Idaho, 
has borne out in his character and career the 
attributes of sterling manhood, business capac- 
ity and good citizenship for which his family 
have been noted, not only in this country from 
their advent into American history, but also' for 
generations in the far-off land of Denmark, 
where for ages it has maintained an honorable 
part in the life and activities of that proud little 
kingdom. 

Antoine E. Christensen was born on July 
24, 1864, at Moroni, Sanpete county, Utah, 
being a son of Christian A. and Mattie M. 
Christensen, who bade farewell to friends and 
home in the land of their nativity and crossed 
the wild waste of the Atlantic ocean, and the 
still wider waste of the Great American Des- 
ert, that they might reach the land where their 
religious privileges could be maintained in se- 
curity, their eminent faith serving both as their 
incentive and their inspiration on their weary 
way. It was in 1855 that they arrived in Utah, 
where they located in Sanpete county, and in 
that primitive community they engaged in 



9 2 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



farming and sheepraising, changing their resi- 
dence later to Cache Valley, where they now 
reside, the father being an elder in the Mor- 
mon church, as well as the father of eleven 
children. 

The subject of this review attained man- 
hood in the invigorating atmosphere and amid 
the industrious labors incident to the busy home 
of his parents, as a dutiful son giving loyal 
service to his father's operations until he had 
attained the age of twenty-one years, when he 
passed one year employed in the sheep busi- 
ness and then for six years conducted general 
merchandising at Fountain Green, in Utah. 
In December, 1891, he came to Bingham 
county, Idaho, and commenced his long career 
of useful activities in this section by filing on a 
homestead of 160 acres of land, which he now 
owns, and to which he has added until he has 
a homestead of 185 acres, which, by his dili- 
gent industry, has been brought into subserv- 
iency to the creative powers of civilization, and 
is giving abundant returns to the labor which 
Mr. Christensen has bestowed upon it, being 
also the center of his stockraising operations, 
in which he is running at the present time sev- 
enteen head of cattle. 

His improvements have been conducted 
with wise care and discriminating purpose, ev- 
erything being well adapted to the conditions 
of life here existing. In all social, political and 
business operations of the community, Mr. 
Christensen is ever ready to lend his influence 
and assistance, and heartily supports any 
worthy enterprise which will advance the indus- 
trial and material prosperity of the county, be- 
ing highly esteemed, and possessing great in- 
fluence in the community, not only as a citizen, 
but as a consistent member of the Mormon 
church, of which he is one of the Seventies. 

In Logan, Utah, on April n, 1888, Mr. 
Christensen was married with Miss Anna 
Christine Jensen, a native of Sanpete county, 



Utah, and a daughter of Andrew and Karen 
M. (Sorensen) Jensen, both of whom are na- 
tives of Denmark. Mr. and Mrs. Christensen 
have had eight children, namely : Erastus M., 
Ethel M., deceased, Leo, deceased, Chloe, de- 
ceased, Andrew, Christian A., Daisy and Le- 
roy. Politically Mr. Christensen renders 
stanch allegiance to the Republican party, and 
is extensively and favorably known throughout 
the entire community for the interest he mani- 
fests in all things tending to build up its moral 
and religious interests and maintain its high 
standard among the communities of the county, 
and he has won the esteem and confidence and 
cordial regard of his friends and neighbors. 

J. W. CHAPMAN. 

Back to the Old Dominion must we turn 
for the ancestry of the subject of this review, 
where his ancestors, both agnatic and cognatic, 
were numbered among the early Colonial fam- 
ilies of that state, who took a patriotic part in 
the important events leading up to and devel- 
oping in the great war of the Revolution, par- 
ticipating as soldiers in that great contest, and 
later being identified with the various phases 
of advancing civilization in that prosperous 
commonwealth. His paternal grandfather was 
William Chapman, who was a veteran of the 
war of 1812 but passed most of his life as a 
pioneer in the states of Virginia, Missouri and 
Kentucky, marrying in the latter state imme- 
diately after the close of that war, his wife be- 
ing a Miss Anna Knight, a native of Georgia, 
and both herself and husband lie reposing in 
their last sleep in Morgan county. Missouri. 

His son, also William Oiapman. was horn 
in Kentucky in 1819. was there reared, becom- 
ing a farmer, soon after his marriage, however, 
removing to Moniteau county. Mo., where and 
in Saint Clair count}- he was prominently con- 
nected with agricultural operations until his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



93 



death. He was among the very first to per- 
manently settle in the wilderness of Moniteau 
county, removing thither in 1841, his residence 
in Saint Clair county dating from 1868. He 
was a man of strong mental qualities, un- 
daunted courage and great force of character, 
and was long connected with public life in vari- 
ous capacities, in his early manhood holding 
numerous local offices, and being justice of the 
peace for a long term of years, while later he 
was frequently elected on the Democratic ticket 
to the important office of county judge. 

A Southerner by birth and education, his 
sympathies were strongly with the Confeder- 
acy at the breaking out of the Civil war, and he 
gave most distinguished service in the Confed- 
erate army, entering as a recruiting officer of 
humble rank and at the expiration of his term 
of service on June 5, 1865, being mustered out 
as colonel. He was a Baptist in his religious 
creed and his death occurred in Stoddard coun- 
ty, Mo., in 1 90 1, where he had obtained the 
venerable age of eighty-two years and one 
week. His wife was a native of Shelbyville, 
Ky., where she was born in 1824, a 
daughter of John S. and Eliza (Guideon) Ow- 
ens, and being the mother of eleven children, 
of whom nine are still living, John William 
Chapman being the eldest of the family. J. S. 
Owens was of Welsh origin, his immediate an- 
cestors, however, for several generations resid- 
ing in Pennsylvania, where he was born in 
Philadelphia. His wife, Eliza, was a native of 
Indiana, and most of their married life was 
passed in Kentucky, the above, however, dying 
in Missouri. Mr. Owens was also a veteran 
of the war of 1812, and prominently connected 
with the Baptist church, in which he was or- 
dained as a missionary, but from accidental 
causes did not perform any missionary work. 

John W. Chapman lived with his parents in 
Missouri until 1861, when he enlisted in Com- 
pany C, First State Guards of Missouri, and 
served with that organization for about six 



months in the Confederate service, then en- 
gaged in pedagogical labors which he success- 
fully prosecuted in various schools until the 
spring of 1864, when he came across the plains 
with a caravan of ox teams to Boise City, Ida- 
ho. There he soon engaged in placer mining, 
which he followed for three years and taught a 
school in the valley, twenty miles below Boise 
City during the winter of 1866 and 1867; then 
he made his headquarters at Helena, Mont., for 
ten years, removing thence to Butte, where he 
maintained his home for twenty years, his oc- 
cupations being various, among them freight- 
ing and clerking in Helena, and for ten years 
of his life in Butte being engaged in the trans- 
fer business, thereafter engaging in association 
with P. A. Largey, president of the State Sav- 
ings Bank, in the raising of thoroughbred cat- 
tle and horses, closing out this business, how- 
ever, after his partner's tragical death on Jan- 
uary 11, 1898. 

Mr. Chapman then became identified with 
staging operations from Divide, Mont., to 
Gibbonsville, Idaho, having also a store in 
Butte. In 1899 he came to Bingham county 
and located on a ranch of 240 acres situated 
twenty miles northeast of Blackfoot on Wol- 
verine Creek, which was the nucleus of ranch- 
ing and stockraising operations of wide scope 
and importance, being considered one of the 
representative men of Bingham county. A 
Democrat in politics, he has done loyal serv- 
ice for the principles and policies of that party 
since he attained the age of eighteen years, and 
was the chairman of the Democratic conven- 
tion of Bingham county in 1901. 

On August 3, 1877, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Chapman with Miss Katie Orr, who 
was born in Springfield, Mo., on June 8. 
1859, the eldest daughter of Hon. Sample Orr, 
a late resident of Blackfoot, a native of Ten- 
nessee and an early settler of this section, her 
mother in maidenhood being Miss Emeline 
Donaldson. The Chapman family contains 



94 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



three children: William O., Mary O. and Mar- 
shall B. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have long 
been consistent members of the Christian 
church, and are noted for their earnest, promi- 
nent service in the temperance cause, Mr. Chap- 
man having been identified with temperance 
work since 1869, when he was made a Good 
Templar, and becoming a member of the grand 
lodge of Good Templars in Montana in 1872, 
in which he has retained his membership there- 
with. He has served in every office connected 
with the Good Templars lodge and as grand 
chief templar and the grand secretary of the 
grand lodge, being an earnest and consistent 
temperance man, and his children are earnest 
workers in the same line of humanitarian prog- 
ress. 

JOSEPH CLAYTON. 

The sturdy qualities of the English char- 
acter which have conquered the world on the 
sea and colonized it on land, are well exempli- 
fied in the character and career of Joseph Clay- 
ton, of Preston, Idaho, a native of that country, 
where he was born on October 5, 1847, not 
far from the city of Manchester. His parents, 
George and Jane (Bingham) Clayton, were 
also English by nativity, and the father was a 
stone-mason in his native land. Some time in 
the forties they were converted to Mormonism, 
and in 1853 the father came to the United 
States and crossed the plains to Utah with ox 
teams. He located at Salt Lake City and was 
there employed at his trade on the temple, 
helping to build the walls of that renowned 
structure, which is the wonder and admiration 
of all who behold it. In 1855 t' ie mother and 
children joined him in Utah, and in 1856 the 
family settled on a homestead at Lehi and be- 
gan a farming industry, although for about a 
year longer the father continued his mason 
work on the temple, walking to Salt Lake City 
every Monday morning and home every Satur- 



day night. The family remained at Lehi and 
continued to operate the farm until the death of 
the father in 1865, and, soon after that event, 
in 1866, the mother and children removed to 
Franklin, Idaho, where they made their home 

Joseph Clayton received what education it 
was possible to acquire at Lehi, and, on coming 
to Franklin at the age of nineteen, he started 
life for himself, working on farms near the 
town until the spring of 1876, when he came 
to the Idaho section of the Cache Valley, in 
which Preston is located, where there were 
then only a few settlers who had located there 
during the preceding years. He took up the 
ranch he now owns and occupies, two and one- 
half miles east of Preston, built a house and 
settled down to the industry in general farm- 
ing and raising stock, which he is still conduct- 
ing with vigor and success. The best and most 
serviceable years of his life have been passed 
here, and his best and most productive ener- 
gies have been devoted to the development and 
improvement of the section around him. 
which, although a wilderness waste when he 
first saw it, is now rejoicing in all the come- 
liness and fecundity of a high cultivation and 
abundant with the most valuable products of 
an advanced civilization. 

In October, 1872, Mr. Clayton was united 
in marriage with Miss Margaret Olson, a na- 
tive of Norway, the marriage being solemnized 
at Salt Lake City. They have had ten chil- 
dren, Maria, George, Martha. Myron (deceas- 
ed), Marinda, Francis, Mahala, Nessie, Orvilla 
and Lylah. The mother died in April, 1S99, and 
her remains were laid to rest at Franklin. Mr. 
Clayton has always taken an active interest in 
church work, having served as ward teacher 
ever since he settled in this community. He is 
highly esteemed as an excellent citizen, an up- 
right and progressive man. being an element 
in the public life of the community of great 
breadth of view and public spirit. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



95 



EZRA CHRISTENSEN. 

A man of resolute will, ready and fruitful 
resources, self-reliance and courage, stands su- 
perior to others and makes his way over every 
obstacle. No danger daunts him and he presses 
forward to success in his chosen course with a 
firm belief in his own powers; assured of his 
ability to successfully battle with the opposing 
forces and unpromising conditions of nature, 
and, by his skill, energy and discriminating 
care, turning the deserts of the wild West into 
gardenlike fields and charming homes. The 
truth of this statement is well illustrated in the 
successful career of Ezra Christensen, who is 
now residing on his finely improved estate of 
540 acres, near Goshen, in Bingham county, 
Idaho, where he is successfully engaged in ag- 
ricultural operations of ramified proportions 
and prosperous assurance. 

Mr. Christensen is a native of Cache Val- 
ley, Utah, being a son of Nels and Christiana 
(Larsen) Christensen, natives of Denmark, the 
father coming to the United States and to 
Utah in one of the earliest Mormon emigra- 
tions, locating in the then primitive region of 
Cache Valley, where he became largely inter- 
ested in the development of the country and in 
the conducting of farming enterprises, also be- 
ing honored with the position of one of the 
Seventies in the Mormon church. His mar- 
riage occurred here in 185 1, and, after thirty- 
two years of happy wedded life, the father died 
in 1883, the mother thereafter manifesting a 
broad capability and a tender devotion in the 
bringing up of her family, exemplifying in her 
life and activities rare elements, persistency in 
the accomplishment of her purpose and an ex- 
cellent capability of judgment, and she is now 
an honored resident of Bingham county. 

Mr. Christensen early gave active assist- 
ance to his mother in solving the financial prob- 
lems of the family, but at the age of fifteen 



years he commenced to battle with life for him- 
self and he was successful in his endeavors. 
In 1893 he came to Idaho and made his home 
in Bingham county, where he purchased the 
land where he now resides, continuing its de- 
velopment on wise and discriminating lines, and 
engaging in diversified farming and in the rais- 
ing of stock, of which he is now running fine 
herds of horses, cattle and sheep. On his fine 
estate Mr. Christensen has provided every es- 
sential necessary for the successful carrying on 
of the departments of husbandry to which he 
is devoting his attention, having a commodious 
and comfortable residence, surrounded by 
grounds artistically laid out and on which are 
growing thrifty trees which have been planted 
by him since his occupancy of the place. 

This property was nearly a primitive wil- 
derness when he took hold of it, but now it 
smiles with bountiful harvests made vigorous 
by silvery veins of sparkling water conducted 
by irrigation canals, its attractiveness being en- 
hanced by the herds of contented cattle brows- 
ing on the range. A zealous member of the 
Mormon church, and a strong adherent of the 
Republican political party, Mr. Christensen is 
most decidedly a representative man of the 
county, his contributions to the advancement 
of his community being substantial and of solid 
value. He was married on October 8, 1900, 
to Miss May Killian, a native of Utah, and a 
daughter of Heber and Gertrude ( Thurston') 
Killian. They have two bright and interest- 
ing children, Cortez and Othello. 

GEORGE H. CARVER. 

George H. Carver, of Preston, one of the 
representative and progressive farmers and also 
one of the active and influential church work- 
ers of Oneida county, is a native of Kaysville, 
Utah, where he was born on November 11, 
1854, the son of John and Mary A. (Eames) 



9 6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Carver, natives of England who became con- 
verts to Mormonism in the early years of their 
maturity and then determined to make their 
home in Utah. They embarked for the United 
States in 1849 in the same ship with a company 
of homeseekers and were married on the voy- 
age, having the music of the waves for their 
wedding march and the stars of the night for 
their hymeneal torches. On their arrival in 
this country they bought an outfit and with it 
crossed the plains to their destination, reach- 
ing Salt Lake City in due time, without ad- 
venture worthy of special notice. 

After a short stay in the Mormon metrop- 
olis they took up their residence in Davis 
county, near the site of the present town of 
Kaysville, and engaged in cultivating the soil, 
which the father accepted as the line of work 
marked out for him. They remained in Kays- 
ville until the fall of 1859, then moved to 'Web- 
er county, and he was one of the eleven men 
who laid out the town of Plain City, now one 
of the most progressive and substantial coun- 
try towns of the entire state. He took up land 
there on which he has ever since been engaged 
in farming, still owning the place, which has 
been in his possession forty-three years. He is 
one of the representative and influential men 
of that county, taking an active interest in pub- 
lic affairs, and in church matters always being 
in the lead. For a number of years he held the 
office of president of the branch, corresponding 
to the present bishop of a ward, at that time 
there being but one bishop for an entire county. 
In 1870 his wife died, leaving seven children, 
six of whom are living. 

George H. Carter, their son, reached man's 
estate and received his education at Plain City, 
finishing at the Ogden (Utah) Seminary. He 
then taught school in Weber county for six 
years, continuing in this occupation until 1885, 
when he opened a merchandising establishment 
at Plain City in partnership with one of his 



brothers. They conducted the business until 
they sold it in 1889, and that fall George went 
to eastern Oregon to become the superintend- 
ent of the business of the Oregon Lumber 
Co., of. Ogden, in that territory, where the 
company had a number of sawmills and large 
crews of men busily occupied in the produc- 
tion of lumber. In 1893 he was transferred to 
western Oregon as their manager for their ex- 
tensive interests in that section. He made his 
headquarters on Hood River for three years, 
at the end of that time being' again transferred, 
this time going to Cascade Locks on the Co- 
lumbia River, where he remained until 1896. 

He was then called by the church on a mis- 
sion to the northwestern states, the most of 
his labors being confined to Montana. This 
mission work occupied him until 1898 when 
he settled at Preston, where he had previously 
bought land one and one-half miles northwest 
of the town and located his family on it. The 
purchase was made in 1889 while he was in 
business at Plain City, and his family had ta- 
ken possession of it during his absence on the 
mission. The house was built for their recep- 
tion and the ground was all laid out for vigor- 
ous farming by him in his numerous previous 
visits. Here he engaged actively in farming 
operations and began at once to take a leading 
part in public affairs. During the first year of 
his residence in Preston he served as deputy 
assessor and in 1900 he was elected county 
surveyor. He has also continued here his ef- 
fective zeal and industry in church matters, 
and at its organization in February, 1902, he 
was chosen as bishop of the Third ward of 
Preston. Prior to taking this office he was 
high counsellor in the Oneida stake. His farm 
has also engaged his most earnest attention and 
is a well-improved and highly cultivated estate; 
he is now devoting time and energy to fruit 
culture. 

On November 24. 188 1, he married with 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



97 



Miss Elizabeth Geddes, the marriage occurring 
at Salt Lake City. She is the daughter of Wil- 
liam and Elizabeth (Stuart) Geddes, natives of 
Scotland and pioneers at Plain City, Utah, 
where Mrs. Carver was born and reared. They 
settled there at the same time that Mr. Carver's 
parents did and remained there until death, 
that of the mother occurring in 1879, that of 
'the father in 1899. Mr. Carver is a devoted 
member of the Republican party and has been 
zealous in its service on all occasions. He is 
well esteemed as an excellent farmer, a leading 
citizen, a devout churchman and an upright 
man in all the relations of life. 

JAMES ' CHRISTENSON. 

Among the - successful and representative 
stockgrowers of Bingham county, Idaho, the 
names of many of whom are recorded in this 
volume, and standing prominent among that 
class of deserving and progressive men who 
are identified with this promising and rapidly 
developing state, and who are noted for their 
executive ability, is Mr. James Christenson, 
who all his life has been a diligent and active 
laborer, acquiring competency through his well- 
calculated endeavors and becoming one of the 
leading agriculturists of his section of the 
state. Mr. Christenson was born on March 30, 
1872, a native of Fountain Green, Utah, and a 
son of Christian A. and Metta Christenson, 
who were among the large number of intelli- 
gent Danes who early came to Utah that they 
might there undisturbed worship God among 
the people of their faith. Arriving in Utah 
about 1855, the parents located in Sanpete 
county and were among the pioneer developers 
of that undeveloped section, there following 
agricultural pursuits until 1889 when, coming 
to Bingham county, Idaho, they located a home- 
stead where their son James now resides, here 
following pioneer farming until 1893 when, re- 



turning to Utah, they located at Smithfield, 
where they now reside. 

Educated and brought up in the belief that 
idleness was a cardinal sin and that industry 
and strict integrity were keys to success, Mr. 
Christenson attained manhood in Utah, there 
becoming thoroughly familiar with the meth- 
ods necessary to properly conduct the various 
branches of husbandry that prevail in this sec- 
tion of the land. He accompanied his parents 
to this county in 1889, aided in the develop- 
ment of the property and commenced in a 
small way the raising of stock and also diver- 
sified farming. His success has been cumula- 
tive and steadily prosperous on his extensive 
ranch of 840 acres of productive land, which 
he has materially improved and developed un- 
til it ranks in line with the leading properties 
of its kind in the county. He has erected a 
beautiful stone residence, of modern design, ar- 
chitecture and equipments, and also the neces- 
sary barns, corrals, etc., which his extensive 
business demands, and from' this as the center 
of his industries he is conducting stockraising 
operations of scope and importance, running 
bands of 4,000 sheep, 100 horses, about forty 
cattle and 200 hogs. 

The success of Mr. Christenson has been 
continuous with marked success from the first, 
his experience and careful methods, as well as 
his personal popularity, being potent factors in 
advancing its interest. His experiences have 
been many and varied, for he has witnessed the 
growth and development of this portion of the 
country from its primitive wildness to a con- 
dition of high civilization and importance, and 
he has shown those characteristics of energy, 
discrimination and integrity of purpose which 
insure success in any field of enterprise, being 
considered one of the leading men of the 
county and holding political relations with the 
Republican party. 

On November 28, 1895, occurred the 



93 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



marriage of Mr. Christenson with Miss Anna 
L. Clark, a native of Utah and a daughter of 
Leonidas and Anna E. Clark, now residents 
of Bingham count}', Idaho, where their home 
is maintained at Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. 
Christenson have these children: James V., 
born on December 23, 1896; Anna Marie, 
born June 19, 1899; Louella, born on January 
2. 1903. When James Vestal was six years 
of age he assisted in branding the cattle on the 
ranch, being then considered the best youthful 
rider in northern Idaho. He is a natural rider 
and an interested worker among stock, many 
times doing the work of a man. 

BISHOP WILFORD W. CLARK. 

Within the pages of this compilation will 
be found personal mention of many of the dis- 
tinguished leaders who are rendering effective 
service in Idaho in the cause of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This church 
has played a leading part in the consummation 
of the march of civilization of this section of 
the Rocky Mountain region of the Great West, 
leading the way to this by establishing the 
center of its social and religious activities in the 
original desert region surrounding the great 
Salt Lake of Utah, by implanting there great 
numbers of the valuable members of its faith, 
which it gathered, not only from the older 
states of the Union and from Canada, but also, 
through the energetic labors of its faithful 
emissaries, brought in numbers from nearly 
every civilized place and country in Europe, 
and it is gratifying the leaders of the church 
to note, that, in the successful years that have 
followed, its influence has not waned and its 
work has kept pace with the development of 
the country and spiritual necessities of the 
people. 

Among the zealous workers of this great 
church is Bishop Wilford W. Clark, now the 



incumbent of the important office of bishop of 
Montpelier ward in Bear Lake county, Idaho. 
It is with pleasure that we enter here a suit- 
able record of his life and useful activities. He 
was born in Farmington, Utah, on February 2, 
1863, being a son of Ezra T. and Mary 
(Stevenson) Clark, the father a native of 
Illinois and his mother born on the celebrated 
Rock of Gibralter at the mouth of the Medi- 
terranean Sea. His parents crossed the plains 
of Utah in 1848 with the second battalion of 
the Mormon emigrants, and there engaged in 
fanning and stockraising, the father, a man 
of ability, becoming prominent in public 
affairs, serving as the county treasurer of 
Davis county for several terms, while in church 
affairs he was equally prominent, filling 
successfully several missions in the United 
States and one in Europe, and at the time of 
his death, on October 19, 1891. at the vener- 
able age of seventy-eight years, he held the 
position of a patriarch. His widow is still 
maintaining her residence in Utah at the age 
of seventy-seven years. 

The paternal grandfather of Bishop Clark 
was Timothy B. Clark, a native of New 
England, of English ancestry, who erected the 
first framed building in the infant city of 
Chicago. 111., and gave his name to the prom- 
inent street of that city now bearing it. and 
he most prosperously conducted agricultural 
pursuits in that state until his death. The early 
ancestors of the Bishop in both the agnatic 
and cognatic lines were members of old 
Colonial families, representatives of both lines 
giving zealous service in the Revolutionary 
war. Of the eleven children of his father's 
family, eight are now living and all in un- 
usually prosperous circumstances. 

Bishop Clark received his early preliminary 
education at the excellent schools of Farming- 
ton, thereafter continuing his studies at the 
then Deseret University, now the celebrated 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



99 



University of Utah, and at the Brig-ham 
Young Academy at Provo, Utah. After his 
graduation he engaged in farming and stock- 
raising in Idaho, coming to Georgetown as one 
of its early pioneer settlers in 1884, and, from 
that time to the present, he has been con- 
secutively and prosperously engaged in these 
highly important departments of the agri- 
cultural development of Idaho, and he has quite 
an extensive estate, owning- 400 acres of 
valuable and productive land at Georgetown, 
also 120 acres closely adjacent to Montpelier, 
where he now makes his home, making a 
specialty of raising cattle, graded Shorthorns 
being his specialty, owning and running 
thoroughbred cattle of superior breeds and a 
band of finely graded horses. His residence in 
Montpelier is a house of modern design and 
equipment, and he holds an estimable place 
in the esteem and affection of the populace. 

An influential and zealous member of the 
Republican party, he was elected in 1894 the 
lower house of the Idaho legislature, in which 
office he performed marked service, and among 
other valuable measures supported by him: was 
the enactment of the law giving female 
suffrage to the state. In 1902 he was placed 
in nomination for the state senator, and at the 
following election received a very compli- 
mentary majority, and he is now incumbent of 
that office. 

Bishop Clark rendered most capable ser- 
vice to his church as a missionary from 1889 to 
1891 inclusive, as one of the Seventies estab- 
lishing numerous branches, and he was a coun- 
sellor to the bishop of Georgetown until 1893, 
when he received the distinction, of being 
selected to preside as bishop over Montpelier 
ward, and in the duties of this office he is 
rendering efficient service to his church, by his 
wisdom, executive ability and his principles ot 
equity, securing and maintaining a high degree 
of popularity. 



On July 22, 1885, at Logan, Utah, Bishop 
Clark was joined in the bonds of wedlock with 
Miss Pamelia Dunn, a native of Plain City, 
Utah, who accompanied her parents to- Idaho 
when but a child of two years of age, her 
parents being John and Julia A. (McGuire) 
Dunn, both pioneers of Utah and of Bear Lake 
county, Idaho, where they are now passing the 
evening of their lives of usefulness and pro- 
ductiveness. To this marriage union of Bishop 
Clark has been given ten children : Wilford 
W. ; William O. ; Vera Pamelia ; Royal D. ; 
Ernest, who died in infancy ; Elmer R. ; Homer 
and Howard, twins, born on their mother'? 
thirty-fifth birthday; Russel and LeGrand. 

LEANDER T. CLIFFORD. 

One of the oldest and proudest families of 
England is that of Clifford, dating as it does 
back to 1066, when members of the family ac- 
companied William the Conqueror from 
Normandy and participated in the bloody bat- 
tle of Hastings that gave him possession of 
the land. From that time it has had promi- 
nence in England, and of that stock springs 
Leander T. Clifford through a strong line of 
American ancestors, who were domiciled in 
Massachusetts and Virginia in early days of 
America, and later in Kentucky, from where 
the immediate ancestors of the Mr. Clifford of 
this review emigrated to Illinois. Mr. Clif- 
ford was born on April 8, 1855, at Brigham 
City, Utah, a son of Leander H. and Ada 
(Mathias) Clifford, the mother being of Welsh 
lineage, and whose immediate ancestors were 
people of consequence in Wales. The death 
of his mother in 1862 threw the boy into a 
rough atmosphere for his development, as his 
father was a man of the frontier, and the lad's 
first employment was freighting and teaming 
between Salt Lake and Butte, Helena, A^ir- 
ginia City, and other Montana points, contin- 



IOO 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



uing in this from 1867 until the completion of 
the Utah & Northern Railroad, during a 
portion of this time however engaging in con- 
struction work on that railroad, working on 
the big fill at the Promontory and in the 
Goose Creek country. 

From childhood Mr. Clifford labored un- 
der great disadvantages, for when, in 1859, the 
Mormons moved to the neighborhood of 
Springfield, he was playing in a yard when a 
solitary Ute Indian, one of a band of 300 hos- 
tiles, who were camped on Spanish Fork, shot 
a poisoned arrow into one of his legs from 
which he has been permanently crippled. In 
1866 his father moved into the Cache Valley, 
where the family encountered many difficulties 
through the hostile actions of the Indians, and 
here the father was an Indian interpreter in 
connection with the company of minute men 
commanded by Capt. Thomas E. Ricks. After 
this his father changed his residence to the 
Bear Lake Valley, where the son visited his 
father, thereafter engaging in his former 
freighting operations on the overland trail, 
continuing to be thus employed until 1878, 
when he married, at Weston, Idaho, on June 
8, 1878, Miss Melissa Gifford, a daughter of 
Levi and Caroline (Jaques) Gifford, who was 
born at Moroni, Utah, on January 5, i860. 
her father tracing his lineage to Scotland and 
the mother being of English extraction. She 
crossed the plains with one of the handcart 
companies. After the marriage of Mr. Clif- 
ford they were called to various points in Utah 
and Idaho to make settlements, which work 
they continued until called from earth. The 
mother died on March 21, 1881, and the 
father in September, 1892. 

On April 1, 1883, Mr. Clifford and family 
arrived at Rexburg and in its near vicinity 
they located on a tract of land, a year later 
returning to Castle Valley, where he pur- 
chased eighty acres of land near Price, but, as 



he could not get water to it, for four years 
he was forced to work at any labor around 
the stores to supply the needs of his family. 
On June 1, 1889, he again took up the line of 
march for Idaho, traveling through the Span- 
ish Fork Canyon, arriving at La Belle on the 
15th of the same month, and using his 
homestead right on his present estate, where 
he owns 120 acres, fifty acres being under ex- 
cellent cultivation. From the time of his ar- 
rival here he has heartily taken hold of all 
enterprises for the benefit of the people, as- 
sisted in building the irrigating ditches and 
canals of Rexburg in 1883 and also in the con- 
struction of the Long Island canal in 1890. 
in which company he has been a director from 
the first. 

Local and private affairs however have 
not fully occupied his time, for he has piven 
zealous and persistent labor in the cause of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, being ordained 
an elder at St. George Temple, in southern 
Utah, in 1879. and he has been serving a^ 
teacher of La Belle ward for years. In this 
connection he has been most heartily sec- 
onded by his very competent and capable 
wife, whose executive ability has been demon- 
strated in many official relations in the 
church, among them counsellor in the primary 
at Price for two and one-half years. Sunday 
school teacher for seventeen years, serving in 
that capacity at Rexburg from the first es- 
tablishment of the school (continuing that 
pleasing duty in all of the wards in which she 
has since resided), an instructor in the reli- 
gion class for years, secretary of the relief so- 
ciety for sjx years, being now one of the coun- 
sellors, a counsellor in the primary of La Belle 
ward for nine years, and for three years pres- 
ident of the Young Ladies' Association, all of 
these duties being performed in such a man- 
ner as to indicate her comprehension of the 
work and devout religious principle. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



101 



From the highly fortunate marriage of 
Mr. and Mrs. Clifford has resulted ten chil- 
dren, whose names and dates of birth fol- 
low: Leander L., born March 10, 1879; 
Thomas H., born December 18, 1880; Amos 
P., born September 17, 1882; William W., 
born August 27, 1884; Ada C, born Septem- 
ber 20, 1887; Melissa M., born September 
19, 1889; Elmer E., born March 2, 1892; 
Elsie M., born October 6, 1894; Warren A., 
born July 20, 1897 ; and Vera A., born 
March 19, 1900. 

SILAS W. CLEMENTS. 

Always a man of action and enterprise, a 
skillful blacksmith and veterinary surgeon of 
successful practice, Silas Wilbur Clements, 
now a resident of near Rexburg, Fremont 
county, Idaho, has seen much of life in various 
spheres of useful activity, having been born on 
June 15, 1850, at Frankfort, now Winterport, 
Waldo county, Maine, the son of John F. and 
Margaret (Davis) Clements, natives of Maine 
and Vermont, who, when their son Silas was 
about five years of age, removed to Minnesota, 
where the father was employed for one year in 
sawmilling in each of the towins of St. An- 
thony's Falls, now Minneapolis, and Oak . 
Grove in Anoka county, thereafter taking up 
160 acres of government land from which he 
has developed a highly productive and beautiful 
farm and home, where he is passing the clos- 
ing years of a long and useful life, being over 
seventy-six years of age. The faithful wife 
and mother died in the winter of 1903, having 
attained seventy-eight years of useful exist- 
ence. 

Silas W. Clements, the eldest of five chil- 
dren, gave diligent service in his father's inter- 
ests until he had attained his majority and then 
engaged in the milllirtg business on his own ac- 
count, soon however acquiring a hotel at St. 



Francis, Minn., which, after having his parents 
aid him in conducting for over a year, he suc- 
cessfully managed until he profitably sold it on 
November 9, 188 1, when he turned his course 
to Utah. After two months' residence in Salt 
Lake City, he located at Logan as a blacksmith, 
there building a shop and also engaging in vet- 
erinary practice, having become qualified for 
this while a resident of Minnesota, and during 
his two years' residence in Logan he became 
the owner of two blacksmith shops, one of 
which he Sold before starting on a traveling 
veterinary practice. 

While on this tour he passed through Rex- 
burg, Idaho, stopping here for a time to assist 
his brother, Eugene, in the first blacksmith 
shop of the town, thereafter proceeding to Bay 
Horse, where he was employed as a veterinary 
surgeon in a shop for a season of hunting, 
after which he returned to Logan, soon, how- 
ever, coming north to Camas, where he re- 
ceived four dollars a day for working as a 
blacksmith. He soon purchased a shop and in 
association with his brother conducted it until 
1889, when he started with his family • for 
Pleasant Valley, Idaho, where he located a 
claim, soon however returning to Camas, oc- 
cupying there the railroad section house for a 
residence. From there he migrated to Rex- 
burg, reaching that place on November 22, 
. 1890, and on June 1, 1891, he took up a land 
claim of 160 acres, here making his f amity 
home. In 1892, he returned to Minnesota for 
a year, and during this absence all of the val- 
uable timber on his ranch was burned. On his 
return in 1893, he rented a blacksmith shop, 
which he carried on for two years, and from 
that time to the present he has been living on 
his ranch. In politics Mr. Clements' only 
care is to vote for the best man, and in the Mor- 
mon church, of which he has for so many years 
been an upright member, he was ordained as 
an elder in 1877, and is still holding that rela- 



102 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OB BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tion, having also served as a teacher and dea- 
con. 

At Anoka, Minn., on April 12, 1873, Mr. 
Clements and Miss Betsy C. Vestling were pro- 
nounced man and wife. She was born in 
Sweden, where her mother is now living and 
in the possession of hale and vigorous health, 
although advanced in years. The children of 
Mr. and Mrs. Clements are: Sophia M., born 
on January 27, 1874, died in October, 1882; 
John W., born on July 4, 1875; Louise M., 
torn on April 5, 1877; Estella A., born on 
March 4, 1879; Bertha M., born on February 
10, 1881 ; Lilla R., born on February 21, 1882; 
Sylvestus S., born on July 1, 1884; Margaret 
M., born on March 24, 1891. 

HON. JOHN A. BAGLEY. 

To epitomize the life and character of Hon. 
John A. Bagley, the present attorney general 
of the state of Idaho, within the limits of which 
this work allows is impossible, but none the 
less the record of his useful life and activities 
must be a constituent portion of any volume 
that claims to deal with the life record and 
character of the representative and progressive 
men of this section of the state; far less than 
many of the residents of the county does he 
need a written statement for the clearness of 
his purpose, the soundness of his judgment, 
his tireless activity and his pronounced ability 
have impressed the "very age and body of 
time." making his life a positive factor and 
controlling force in many of the leading indus- 
tries and enterprises of the place and period. 

Hon. John A. Bagley was born in Draper, 
Utah, on May 16, 1862, a son of John and 
Mary J. (Allen) Bagley. the father being a 
native of New Brunswick, and for further an- 
cestral data we would refer the reader to the 
sketch of John Bagley published on other pages 
of this book. General Bagley received his pre- 



liminary educational training in the primitive 
schools of Idaho, as he was but two years of 
age when he accompanied his parents to this 
then lonely land, and the education he here ac- 
quired was supplemented by an attendance at 
the excellent high schools of Utah and further 
increased by a full course in the Brigham 
Young College, from which he was graduated 
with distinct honors in 1882, his first instruc- 
tion, however, being under Dr. John Park, now 
of Salt Lake City, who taught him his alpha- 
bet. Immediately upon graduating he became 
connected with railroad construction and as- 
sisted in completing the Oregon Short Line 
Railroad from Granger to Huntington, in this 
manner earning the necessary money to defray 
his expenses as a student of Michigan State 
University, at Ann Arbor, from which he was 
graduated in the law department in 18S8, be- 
ing- thoroughly reinforced and equipped with 
the necessary technical and legal erudition to 
pass the prescribed examination and be admit- 
ted to practice. Coming immediately to 
Montpelier, he at once engaged in a legal prac- 
tice that his ability soon made extensive, far- 
reaching and lucrative, his services being de- 
manded not only in the courts of Bear Lake 
county, but in every county of the state of 
Idaho and extending into Wyoming, Utah, 
Montana and Nebraska, becoming known as 
one of the most eminent members of the bar of 
the state, which has been from the first sig- 
nally favored in the personnel of its legists and 
jurists. 

In the departments of industrial activity 
that so long lay dormant in this portion of the 
West General Bagley is the owner of valuable 
interests in mines in this vicinity, holding an 
interest also in the electric light plant in Mont- 
pelier. and in numerous other prosperous indus- 
tries. He is the president of the Montpelier 
Copper and Mining Co., which has such a fine 
development and showing for a good mine that 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



105 



the company expects soon to install expensive 
machinery to continue the development to a 
dividend-paying state. 

General Bagley has always rendered a loyal - 
allegiance to the principles and policies of the 
Republican party,- is one of the leading mem- 
bers of that political organization in the state 
and one of its most eloquent and talented advo- 
cates, and it is recognized by all political ele- 
ments that his services in that direction have 
been invaluable and due recognition of this has 
been shown by his receiving the nomination of 
his party for attorney general in 1896 and for 
district judge for the Fifth judicial district in 
1898, but, as a minority candidate in each in- 
stance, he shared in the defeat of the whole 
ticket. In 1902, however, he again received the 
nomination for attorney general and at the sub- 
sequent election received the highest, majority 
of any candidate on the state ticket and was 
most triumphantly elected, the voters of the 
state doing themselves honor by their indorse- 
ment of his nomination, and he is now in the 
incumbency of this most important office, in 
which his ablest efforts are used for the fur- 
therance of justice and the true interests of the 
state. 

In Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 2, 
1883, occurred the marriage ceremonies uniting 
in the bonds of wedlock General Bagley and 
Miss Sarah E. Lawson, a native of Lehi, Utah, 
and a daughter of John and Margaret V. 
(Vance) Lawson, her father being deceased, 
and her mother now maintaining her home at 
Coalville, Utah, both being among the early 
pioneers of Utah territory. On April 5, 1885, 
Mrs. Bagley passed over to those activities that 
have no weariness, leaving one child, L. Lor- 
raine, now a student at Provo, Utah. Mr. Bag- 
ley contracted a second marriage on August 15, 
1888, with Miss Mina V. Furrow, a native of 
Clinton, Iowa, daughter of John and Amanda 
(Vanhorn) Furrow, and of this marriage union 



has resulted six children : Vanhorn, Moretta, 
Almorean, Hawley, Lucile, Nina B. 

The elegant residence of General Bagley at 
Montpelier deserves especial mention. It is 
the largest and most pretentious home of the 
entire Bear Lake country, containing as it does 
twenty-one rooms, with three stories and an 
attic, all lighted by electricity and heated by 
furnaces. It is very artistically arranged, show- 
ing the fine taste of both the General and his 
cultured wife, the large entrance hall and the 
three adjoining parlors being finished in clear 
Georgia pine and connecting with ample fold- 
ing doors, having - also- large grates and man- 
tels, appropriately placed to send out an atmos- 
phere of cheer and radiance in the pleasant win- 
ter evenings. All through the home modern 
science has been brought to play in producing 
the best sanitary and domestic effects, every- 
thing being in the latest fashion. One leading 
feature is the attic, so generally consigned to 
■ the fate of a mere storehouse and lumber room. 
Here is a notable exception. The chief portion 
of this is a children's romp room and sanctum, 
the walls being covered with paintings and 
chalk drawings of more than ordinary merit. 
Off from this has at one of the front corners 
been projected a room, called the "den," being 
really an elegant combined study and library, 
where the genial • owner can in quiet pass 
thoughtful, meditative and studious hours, free 
from the annoyance of interruptions. From 
the ample windows one of the most beautiful 
vistas of the noted scenery of the Bear River 
and Lake country spreads itself before the en- 
raptured vision. 

General Bagley is financially interested in 
the Montpelier Lumber Co., the Pacific Irriga- 
tion Canal Co., the Fossil oil fields of Wyo- 
ming, and the North Star Cattle Co., being at- 
torney for all these corporations and a director 
in each. Few men have a stronger hold upon 
the hearts of the people than General Bagley, as 



io6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



he believes in the theory of making the world 
better by having lived in it, and his friends are 
numbered without regard to political partisan- 
ship or party bias. Modest in his demeanor, 
courteous and cultured in his personal inter- 
course with all, he has attained one of the 
highest positions in the gift of the people of 
his state from his most admirable qualities of 
character and ability, which have been equal to 
every demand ; and in the annals of Idaho he 
will ever stand as one of her most distinguished 
citizens and able and upright public men. 

JESSE CLEVERLY. 

The reader of English history will remem- 
ber how often and at how many different per- 
iods of time the name of Cleverly appears in 
the record. The family is an early one in Eng- 
land, tracing back for many generations as res- 
idents on the soil of that fair land, and so, when 
in speaking of some of the progressive men of 
his section of this portion of the state of Idaho, 
we find Mr. Jesse Cleverly listed among the 
number we know without any questioning that 
he is distinctively English. He was born in 
Wiltshire, England, on June 10, 1852, a son of 
James and May (Alexander) Cleverly, his pa- 
ternal grandfather being also a James Cleverly, 
a lifelong resident and farmer of Wiltshire, 
where he died in the fullness of time at a hale 
old age, his wife in her girlhood bearing the 
name of Sarah Lowditch. 

The father of our subject was long engaged 
in pastoral life and labors in the land of his 
birth, and there he first listened to the zealous 
missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
the Latter Day Saints, becoming so thoroughly 
impressed with their truth that his life there- 
after was devoted to the interests of that 
church, himself and family taking up the line 
of duty and following it across the Atlantic 
ocean and the long; stretch of distance reaching: 



westward across the American continent to the 
magic land of L T tah. Here he made his home 
and erected his family altar in the town of 
Bountiful, in Davis county, where he exhibited 
a most exemplar)- life until he was called from 
earth in 1875. at the age of fifty-five 
years. His devoted wife, who had been 
the faithful helpmeet of her husband for 
so many years, survived him and is still 
a resident of Bountiful and in the en- 
joyment of most excellent health, having at- 
tained the venerable age of eighty-five years. 
She was a daughter of Henry and Jane (Brad- 
ford) Alexander, lifelong residents of Eng- 
land, and she was the mother of a family of 
twelve children, whom she reared in the fear 
of the Lord to habits of integrity and honesty. 

Jesse Cleverly was one of the youngest 
members of his father's home circle and re- 
ceived a solid education in the schools of the 
place of his birth. He was only fifteen years 
of age, however, when he accompanied his 
elder brother, Frank, from England to Utah, 
where he located at Bountiful and for a few 
years was engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
On attaining his majority in 1873, he returned 
to his native land as an emissary of that new 
and powerful Mormon faith, that possesses 
such power over men, and as a result of its re- 
ligious discipline transforms whole states of 
wilderness land into fruitful fields and "maketh 
the desert to blossom as the rose." 

After three years of missionary work in 
England, Mr. Cleverly returned to Bountiful, 
there devoting his energies to the cultivation of 
the productive soil, thence removing to Ne- 
vada, where he united the occupations of farm- 
ing and stockraising in the famous Ruby Val- 
ley for three successful years, thereafter return- 
ing to Bountiful for a residence of five years. 
In 1884 he removed thence to Bingham coun- 
ty, Idaho, where he homesteaded 160 acres of 
land, ten miles northeast of Idaho Falls, and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



107 



commenced the initial operations for a cattle- 
raising industry of scope and importance, and 
here he now maintains his home, having made 
a radical change in the character of his estate, 
being successful in his methods of procedure 
and consequently prosperous. He was one of 
the projectors of the Eagle Rock and Willow 
Creek Irrigation Canal and was the popular 
deputy watermaster of the company for three 
years. He is considered one of the represen- 
tative stockmen of the county and takes much 
pains to advance the quality of his Durham 
stock, of which he can show some superior 
specimens of thoroughbred and graded cattle. 
He is still devoted to the church of his choice, 
in which he holds the position of bishop's first 
counsellor. 

The marriage of Mr. Cleverly with Miss 
Mary A. Burtenshaw occurred on February 15, 
1875. She came with her parents from Eng- 
land to Utah when she was but three years of 
age, and is .the daughter of John and Sarah 
(Lovell) Burtenshaw, her father being now a 
resident of Bountiful, while her mother is dead. 
Mr. and Mrs. Cleverly have been the parents 
of eleven children, James (deceased), Sarah, 
Millie, John, Lucy, Clarence, Benjamin, Jacob 
(deceased), Charles, Adelbert and Ellen. 

A. COOPER. 

A true son of the West, in that he was 
born, raised and educated in the inter-moun- 
tain region of the Rocky Mountain section of 
the Great West, Agrippa Cooper, who is now 
the owner of a fine ranch three miles east of 
McCammon, Idaho, has so impressed his per- 
sonality upon the people and community by his 
diligent industry, his energy and his capability 
for public position as to be considered one of 
the typical farmers of the county and a man of 
pronounced executive ability. He was born in 
Weber county, Utah, on September 25, 1855, 



being the son of V. J. and Mary J. (Miller) 
Cooper, natives respectively of Louisiana and 
Iowa, the family coming to Utah some years 
previous to the birth of the subject of this 
sketch, and after years of pronounced useful- 
ness, the mother died at Oxford, Idaho, the 
death of the father occurring at Little Basin, 
Cassia county, Idaho. He was a rancher by oc- 
cupation, and rendered admirable service to 
the government for many years as an Indian 
interpreter. 

After his education in the schools of Ox- 
ford, Idaho, Mr. Cooper, of this review, en- 
gaged in freighting on the Montana road, and 
was continuously and profitably employed in 
this occupation for the period of about eight 
years, thereafter engaging in railroad con- 
struction work on the Utah Northern Railroad, 
and later in grading in Nebraska and Wyom- 
ing on the Union Pacific, being prospered in 
his undertakings and acquiring many friends. 
In 1887 he turned his attention to ranching, 
which he has since consecutively followed, his 
fine property near McCammon containing 240 
acres of finely improved land, t with an attrac- 
tive residence and suitable barns, corrals, etc., 
for the proper carrying on of the general farm- 
ing and stockraising operations which are his 
principal branches of business. He has ever 
shown proper attention to his duties as a citi- 
zen, giving time and willing service to all es- 
sential public matters of a local character, and 
he performed the responsible duties of a deputy 
sheriff for one term with credit to himself and 
to the people, among whom he has a host of 
friends. 

Mr. Cooper married with Miss Ida Ray- 
mond, a daughter of Alonzo and Elizabeth 
(Cutler) Raymond, on July 24, 1878, her par- 
ents being natives respectively of Vermont and 
the state of New York. Coming to Utah in 
early days her father served in the Mexican 
war as a member of the Mormon battalion. 



io8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



He is now residing" in Smithfield. Utah, the 
mother dying about 1866. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cooper have an intelligent 
and interesting family of five children, all still 
sheltered by the parental roof. The oldest 
daughter is at the present writing giving high- 
ly acceptable service as a teacher in the Field- 
ing Academy, of Paris, the others being stu- 
dents of the State University at Logan, Utah. 
The family is a constituent part of the cultured 
life of the community of their residence, and a 
cordial hospitality is ever in evidence in the en- 
tertainment accorded their numerous friends 
and acquaintances. 

JAMES M. COLE. 

One of the broad-gauge men of Fremont 
county, Idaho, both physically and mentally, 
is the active and genial rancher. James M. 
Cole, whose home and center of his farming 
and stockraising operations is located three 
and one-half miles east of Grant postoffice, 
where he located 160 acres of sagebrush land 
in 1SS8. and has by his earnest endeavors not 
only brought a fine supply of water for irri- 
gating purposes, but has developed and culti- 
vated much of his estate until it furnishes him 
a handsome annual return in hay and other 
crops for the care and attention he has be- 
stowed upon it. 

Mr. Cole was born on February 8, 1847, 
in McKean county, Pa., a son of William B. 
and Philindia (Cutler) Cole, natives of New 
England, the father being not only an ex- 
cellent mechanic but a skilled farmer. From 
Pennsylvania the family removed to Michi- 
gan in 1855. and, becoming acquainted with 
and believers in the doctrines of the Mormon 
church, in 1859 they made their way across 
the plains to Salt Lake City, their household 
goods being drawn bv three cows and a steer. 
Their Utah home was made near Suit Lake 



City, the father finding profitable employment 
in agriculture and as a mechanic in various 
sawmills, and there he now resides, having ar- 
rived at the hale old age of seventy-eight 
years, the industrious and indulgent mother 
passing across the river of death on Oct* iber 
3, 1900, her remains being deposited in the 
little cemetery at Pleasant Grove, Utah. 

Sharing in the movements and experi- 
ences of his father's family, and being early 
disciplined to labor, Mr. James M. Cole came 
to manhood with a strong body and a vigor- 
ous constitution, which have stood him in 
good stead many times in the pioneer con- 
ditions, and in r868 he engaged in silver- 
mining operations in Utah, continuing to be 
connected therewith for the period of ten 
years, thereafter engaging in diversified 
farming and stockraising with good results. 
It was on July 22, 1 SSS, that he united his 
fortunes with the settlers -of Grant, filing on 
a homestead of 160 acres three and one-half 
miles east of Grant townsite, and from that 
time he has been one of the workers and pro- 
ducers of the neighborhood, turning bis hand 
to any mechanical or agricultural labor 
awaiting the touch of the industrious and by 
his cheering words and genial friendship ac- 
quiring a well-deserved popularity in the com- 
munity. He assisted in constructing the first 
irrigating canal of this part of the county, and 
has been an active factor in all branches of 
public improvement, being also a stockholder 
in the Harrison canal. In his politics, as in all 
local matters, he is a decided independent, no 
political party having its chUches upon him. 

( )n April 28, 1870, were wedded, at Salt 
Lake City. Mr. Cole and Miss Emily J. Grif- 
fin, who was bom in Wisconsin on April 28, 
1852, a daughter of De Morand and Ellen 
(Ogden) Griffin, who in 18(12 crossed the 
plains to Utah as members of one of the at- 
that-time popular ox train caravans, there- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



109 



after making their home at Big Cottonwood, 
in Salt Lake county, where they are now re- 
siding, the father having attained seventy-five 
years and the mother seventy- four. The hos- 
pitable family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Cole has 
been enlarged and blessed by their ten chil- 
dren : Frank, born April 7, 1865 ; Mary Ellen, 
born February 14, 1867; Asaph, born March 
17, 1870; David, born February 22, 1872; 
Emelie, born November 7, 1876; Kate, born 
July 1, 1881 ; Vida, born April 25, 1886; 
Esma, born January 27, 1887; Rufus, July 19, 
1890; Dolly Alice, November 1, 1892. 

JAMES B. CRAWFORD. 

Conspicuously identified during his long 
and useful life of great activity with many de- 
partments of human endeavor and discharging 
all the duties of private, social and industrial 
stations with sterling honesty and conceded 
ability, the venerable James B. Crawford, now 
a resident on a suitably improved and highly 
productive ranch of 160 acres, which is pleas- 
antly situated eight miles west of the village 
of Blackfoot, Bingham county, Idaho, well 
deserves the pen of the historian. 

Mr. Crawford was born on October 18, 
18 1 7, in Columbiana county,. Ohio, a son of 
John and Elizabeth (Bowers) Crawford, the 
father being a representative of an old Vir- 
ginia family of early Scotch-Irish origin, com- 
ing in his early life with his parents to Ohio, 
where his father was a pioneer farmer and 
shoemaker during his entire life, his death oc- 
curring there on June 6, 1881, at the very re-' 
markable age of 109 years. During the war of 
18 1 2 he rendered most effective service for his 
country as a first lieutenant of the First A. S. 
.Rifles. Mrs. Elizabeth Crawford was- born on 
the Atlantic ocean, while her parents were emi- 
grating from Scotland to America, she being 
three days old at their landing in this country. 



Her father made the permanent family home 
in Pennsylvania, there passing the remainder 
of his life in farming occupations, and there 
she was reared and educated. 

James B. Crawford passed his early life in 
his native county of Ohio, attending the prim- 
itive schools and engaging in the rough agri- 
cultural labors incident to that pioneer locality, 
remaining there until he arrived at the age of 
thirty years, thereafter engaging in boating on 
the Susquehanna, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 
during this period helping to survey the route 
for the Beaver canal, and, not only helping to 
construct the locks along its course, but also to 
go safely through them. After passing twenty- 
seven years in river navigation and five years 
on the canal, he came west and conducted ag- 
ricultural operations for twenty-seven years in 
Adair county, Mo., by his careful industry 
and wise management developing a fine farm 
from the original wilderness. 

Always a sterling Democrat, his capability 
for properly serving in public office was recog- 
nized in Missouri by the people choosing him 
to be a trustee of his school district and to local 
offices of trust and importance, among them 
that of supervisor, in which he served for nine 
consecutive years, then, leaving the state and 
coming westward to Wasatch county, Uitah, in 
1880, he there remained for a period of nearly 
nine years, being - diligently engaged in the var- 
ious labors incident to farming. His residence 
in Idaho dates back to 1888, when he came and 
occupied his present place, from that time here 
continuing to follow the vocations of farming, 
fruitgrowing and stockraising, his material in- 
terests also including gold mining. 

Mr. Crawford has been several times mar- 
ried, his first union occurring when he was but 
eighteen years of age, when he was united 
with Miss Jane Morgan, who did not long sur- 
vive. His second marriage was with Miss 
Esther Smith, also a native of Ohio, who lived 



no 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



three years in her married state, died and was 
buried in Columbiana county. His third wife 
was in her girlhood a Miss Rebecca Jones, a 
native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch extraction, 
and she died in 1864 in Adair county, Mis- 
souri, being the mother of nine children. His 
next marriage was with Mrs. Elizabeth 
(Mackey) Scott, a native of Missouri, who 
died in 1879 and was buried in Adair county. 
His marriage to his present wife occurred on 
May 1, 1881, in Wasatch county, Utah, the 
bride being Mrs. Marion (Mann) Nugent, a 
native of Australia and a daughter of Robert 
and Agnes (Ferguson) Mann, of Scotch de- 
scent. 

Robert Mann, a native of Glasgow, Scot- 
land, went to Australia in early life and there 
became a prominent barrister and attorney, 
holding important government positions, 
among others that of government auctioneer. 
He was murdered by a servant in 1847, at the 
age of forty-seven years. His father, Robert 
Mann, was a descendant of numerous genera- 
tions who held that position in Glasgow. He 
was thoroughly educated at the University of 
Edinburg. his wife being the daughter of a 
representative farmer, and the mother of eight 
children. She remained in Australia after the 
death of her husband until her death, in 1S88, 
at the age of sixty-eight years. 

Among his many other claims for consider- 
ation, Mr. Crawford is a veteran of the Civil 
war, serving in Company F, of the Missouri 
militia of Adair county, throughout the entire 
war. His eldest son, William A. Crawford, also 
a veteran, was captured but was held as a pris- 
oner but a short time before he was released. 
By her present marriage Mrs. Crawford has 
two children, David and Dora Isabelle, the 
other surviving children of Mr. Crawford 
being William A., Matilda J., Nancy E., John 
E., Elizabeth S., Florence and Noah. Being 
for a long period of years a useful and devout 



member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
Mr. Crawford is highly esteemed, not only in 
the community at large, but especially in the 
church, in which he is now holding the office of 
elder. 

THOMAS T. DARLEY. 

Born in the pioneer days of Utah and com- 
ing to manhood in touch with business enter- 
prises and industrial activities of scope and im- 
portance, Thomas T. Darley early became a 
factor in business circles, becoming extensively 
known for his quick grasp of possibilities, the 
readiness of his perceptions and for a shrewd 
financial acumen worthy of a man far beyond 
his years. In making up the record of the pro- 
gressive men of Fremont county, Idaho, we 
must give due consideration to his career, as 
he is one of the most forceful elements in sev- 
eral propositions of weight and magnitude. 

Mr. Darley was born on April 6, i860, at 
Wellsville. Cache county, Utah, a son of Wil- 
liam F. and Jemima (Thirkall) Darley. who. 
representatives of ancient and well-known 
families of England, emigrated thence in the 
early days of the settlement of Utah. The 
grandfather and grandmother Thirkall. with 
their family of five children, emigrated in 1S53. 
coming direct to Utah. William Darley mar- 
ried Jemima Thirkall in the spring of 1857. 
The Darley family came in the same train with 
the Thirkalls, and all were from the same sec- 
tion of England, near Norwich. Crossing the 
vast stretches of wild, unpopulated plains to 
Salt Lake, they located at Grantville, Utah, as 
tillers of the soil, two years later removing to 
the Cache Valley, where the grandfather, John 
Thirkall. filed on a homestead of 160 acres and 
engaged in its development, in farming opera- 
tions and in merchandising, being prominent 
for years in social, civil and religious affairs. 
William Darley, the father of Thomas T., 
died in 1899 at the age of seventy years, and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



now awaits the resurrection in the little cem- 
etery at Wellsville, his widow maintaining 
her present home on the original homestead, 
having attained the age of sixty-one years. 

Thomas T. Darley was reared in an atmos- 
phere of broad and comprehensive thought and 
industry, the father and his sons working to- 
gether in the most harmonious relation, and 
they conducted the various business depart- 
ments of their industrial and commercial ac- 
tivities on the cooperative plan, each one work- 
ing in his own place and to the interest to all 
in farming, in merchandising and in stock- 
raising, and they thus continued to labor and 
thrive until 1895, when a division was made, 
and each then followed his own interests. Mr. 
Darley, of this writing, after the division car- 
ried on farming and dairying for two years 
near Wellsville, then, in 1897, removing to the 
Snake River Valley and purchasing, first 160 
acres of land, and thereafter adding thirty 
acres more to his estate, where he has since 
given special attention to dairying in connec- 
tion with general fanning and sheepraising, 
the excellent quality of his product giving him 
a high reputation, building up for him a par- 
ticularly valuable patronage. 

He has made a great: success in clearing his 
land, his systematic energy and well-planned 
efforts bringing his improvements fully up to 
the standard attained by many of the earliest 
pioneers, while in connection with irrigation he 
has manifested great activity, being a stock- 
holder in and a director of the Teton Island 
Irrigation Canal Co. Fortune has favored his 
well-devised plansj and he is rapidly forging 
to the front as one of the representative busi- 
ness men of the county, while he has ever a 
ready hand and a willing effort for the ad- 
vancement of any enterprise of public utility. 
In politics he supports the Democratic party, 
and is one of the highly valued members 
of the Mormon church, in which he has been a 



teacher of his ward and is now an alternate 
member of the high council. Mr. Darley en- 
tered into the matrimonial state on January 1, 
1894, at Logan, Utah, his companion being in 
girlhood Miss Sarah Eckersell, a daughter of 
James and Henrietta (McPhail) Eckersell, and 
for her ancestral and family history the reader 
is referred to the sketch of James Eckersell on 
other pages of this work. The following chil- 
dren have come to the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Darley : Thomas (deceased), James E., Archi- 
bald, William A. (deceased), George, Mary 
Thirkall, Levon and Henrietta. 

JOHN L. DALLING. 

There are some men in every community 
who appear to have been born to succeed, but 
their success is not by any means a matter of 
chance, for they are born with those qualities 
of head and heart, which if cultivated and ap- 
plied to the affairs of life will produce success, 
just as surely as wheat, well-sown, cultivated 
and irrigated, will produce a good crop. 
These qualities appear to be possessed in a 
high degree by John L. Dalling, the owner and 
proprietor of one of the finest farms of Salem, 
Idaho, where he is devoting his attention to 
the development of his estate, the cultivation 
of his land and the raising of an excellent 
strain of the Cotswold breed of sheep, and it is 
but simple justice that in recording the lives of 
the progressive men of Fremont county, we 
should include a review of his successful ca- 
reer. 

John Loder Dalling was born on October 
23, 1856, at Pleasant Grove, Utah, a son of 
John and Ann (Loder) Dalling, the father 
dying when the subject of this review was a 
mere child, the mother later marrying William 
Paul and removing to Salt Lake City, where 
she still maintains her residence. Mr. Dalling, 
now of Salem, Idaho, commenced business for 



112 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



himself as a carpenter at Salt Lake City, pur- 
suing that trade there for five years, thence 
going to Logan, where was his home until 
1884, engaged in various employments, among 
them being employed in building the officers' 
quarters at Camp Douglas, in the year just 
mentioned removing to the new town of Rex- 
burg in the upper valley of the Snake River, 
where for a time he made his residence, aided 
in constructing a ferry across the Henry's Fork 
of Snake River, and later coming to his present 
residence at Salem, where he located on a 
homestead of 160 acres of fertile and eligibly 
situated land, where his endeavors since have 
been fully devoted to the irrigating, improving 
and cultivation of the valuable farm he has 
by his own exertions evolved from the orig- 
inal sagebrush plain. 

He has shown a wise judgment and a care- 
ful discrimination in his labors, which have 
brought him a commensurate prosperity, and 
is considered as one of the leading and repre- 
sentative citizens of the county, assisting in the 
construction of the first irrigating canals of his 
section, and was one of the prime movers and 
original corporators of the Salem Canal, and 
has been one of the directors of the company, 
while in the Mormon church, of which he is a 
valued member, he is now holding the office of 
elder. 

At Salt Lake City, on June 27, 1878, Mr. 
Dalling was united in marriage with Miss 
Sarah E. Ricks, a daughter of Thomas E. and 
Tamar (Loder) Ricks, and for information 
concerning her distinguished ancestry the 
reader is referred to the sketch of her honored 
grandfather. President Thomas E. Ricks, ap- 
pearing on other pages of this volume. Mr. 
and Mrs. Dalling have an interesting family 
of eleven children : John died at the age of 
seven months, Sarah E., Thomas E., Ann, 
William. Emma, Lou Amelia. Cora, Marshall, 
Ray and Rhea. The family stands high in 



community circles, and its members are con- 
stituent parts of society and social circles, a 
large number of intimate friends manifesting 
the public regard of all of them, and the home 
is ever a center of cordial hospitality. 

JOHN BAGLEY. 

When nature has a work of unusual magni- 
tude or importance to perform she provides the 
means for its accomplishment. If a crisis in 
human history presents itself which requires 
a master hand to deal with it. when the hour is 
right, the man is ready. Where there exist 
conditions which will not yield to individual 
effort, but require the united force of a race 
of men especially prepared for the work, she 
brings forth the necessary brood and places it 
in the environment which will give it the 
proper preparation for what it has to do. When 
the great Rocky Mountain section of America 
was to be reduced to peaceful submission to the 
will of man. she called forth from every sec- 
tion, and from every land, the race of hardy 
pioneers who patiently endured the inevitable 
hardships and privations, and have worked out 
the desired result. Among the number thus 
brought into successful activity was John Bag- 
ley, who is now passing the evening of a very 
eventful and conspicuous life of stirring events 
at his home in the environs of the progressive 
little city of Montpelier, Bear Lake county, 
Idaho. 

Mr. Bagley was born on April 30, 1836, at 
South Hampton, New Brunswick, a son of 
Edward and Julia (Grant) Bagley. the mother 
being a near kinswoman of General and Presi- 
dent U. S. Grant, the father having his birth 
in the state of New York, while the mother 
was a native of North Hampton, N. B. In 
1855, impelled by strong religious zeal, all of 
the family, except one son, who remained with 
his grandparents, and John, who preceded 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



"5 



them to Utah by one year, made the long and 
wearisome journey across the continent that 
they might obtain in the "promised land" of 
Utah full rest, contentment and happiness, 
through an unrestricted enjoyment of their re- 
ligious faith, the surviving members of the 
family reaching their destination in 1855. The 
mother and two of the children, worn out by 
the hazardous journey across the plains, died 
on the way and were buried by the side of the 
emigrants' trail. The father thereafter made 
his home at Payson, Utah, until his death in 
1865, at the age of sixty-five years. 

The subject of this review was the third 
in the family of twelve children, and, in the 
primitive section of the lumber woods of New 
Brunswick where his early life was passed, he 
received the very limited educational advan- 
tages of two short school terms of sixty days 
each, while, from his eighteenth year, his prin- 
cipal tutors have been observation and experi- 
ence, which, however, have well done their 
work, as Mr. Bagley is in possession of a prac- 
tical knowledge of far greater worth in the 
rough regions of the AVest than all of the cul- 
ture of the schools. Leaving New Brunswick 
on May 10, 1854, he arrived at Salt Lake City 
on October 4th following, and at once engaged 
in lumbering in the Big Cottonwood Canyon, at 
which he was consecutively employed for a pe- 
riod of seven years in the production of build- 
ing timber, serving also- as a special policeman 
of Salt Lake City in the winter of 1858-9. One 
of the earliest pioneers of Bear Lake county, 
Idaho, he made his home therein in 1865, locat- 
ing at Paris, which consisted then of a little 
collection of eight or ten log cabins, and here 
he engaged in agricultural operations for about 
seven years, being one of the leading factors 
in the building up of that enterprising town, 
thereafter, in 1872, removing to Montpelier, 
where he now maintains his home. 

Mr. Bagley has taken an active part in 



many matters of vital importance to the wel- 
fare of the community, having assisted in con- 
necting the East and the West by railroad and 
by telegraph, and he was also active and influ- 
ential in getting the daily mail route estab- 
lished from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while, 
in the development of the industries that pro- 
duce so much of the wealth of this section of 
the state, farming and stockraising, he has 
been an unceasing and productive factor. He 
has been intimately connected with public af- 
fairs, doing yeoman service-in support of the 
principles, first of the Democratic and later of 
the Republican political party, with which lat- 
ter organization he is now in full accord, serv- 
ing also as a peace officer and a deputy sheriff 
for the long term of fourteen years, his guid- 
ing hand being also seen in the conducting of 
all important matters that tend to build up the 
prosperity of the community. On August 3, 
1857, he was one of the number called to arms 
to contest against the invasion of Utah by the 
army of General Johnston, and, during the thir- 
ty-two weeks of his service as a soldier, he ex- 
perienced many hardships, even standing on 
guard during the winter with uncovered head 
and hands, with only socks as a covering for 
his feet during the greatest severity of that ex- 
tremely cold season. 

On March 27, 1861, at Draper City, Utah, 
John Bagley and Miss Margaret M. J. Allen 
were legally pronounced man and wife. Mrs. 
Bagley was a native of Kentucky and a daugh- 
ter of Andrew J. and Delilah (Andrus) Allen, 
both of the parents descending from the 'best 
families of the South, the father being born in 
Kentucky and the mother in France, both emi- 
grating to Utah as first pioneers of its settle- 
ment, coming with the first Mormon company 
in the first year of the Mormon hegira. The 
family here became connected with agricul- 
tural and stockraising operations, the father 
also taking prominent part in the building of 



n6 



PROGRESSII'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the state and being one of the founders of the 
"educational trusts" of Utah. 

The Allen family, to which Mrs. Bagley is 
allied, was originally a prominent English one, 
that early became domiciled on American soil, 
Samuel Allen being the London merchant win > 
purchased the Mason grant of what later be- 
came the state of New Hampshire. The Xew 
England branch was in Revolutionary days in 
part represented by those historic men. Ira and 
Ethan Allen, of Vermont and Ticonderoga.who 
were kinsmen of their North Carolina contem- 
porary, Samuel Allen, a native and a typical 
planter of that province, whose life was passed 
in his native commonwealth. He had sons, 
John, Frank, Rial, David and Samuel, all born 
between 1782 and 1799. Rial, born in 1791, 
went to Kentucky as a member of one of the 
pioneer bands of settlers, brought from his na- 
tive state by Boone and Calloway. Marrying 
Margaret Evans, of Tennessee, he made the 
family home in Somerset, Pulaski county. 
Ky. Here, on September 5, 1818, was born 
their son, Andrew J. Allen, who received the 
name of a friend of the family, the famous An- 
drew Jackson. 

Andrew J. Allen married a Miss Delilah 
Andrus. of Illinois, on April 29, 1841, and set- 
tled at Wadesboro, where their three children, 
Purnecy. William and Mary M. J., now Mrs. 
John Eagle} - , were born. Mr. Allen removed 
with his family in 1846 to Nauvoo, 111., thence 
going in the Mormon exodus to Winter Quar- 
ters, where, in 1847. he joined Captain Smoot's 
company of one hundred, soon thereafter being 
enrolled in Capt. George B. AYallis"s company 
of fifty, who became the pioneers in the great 
movement to Salt Lake, where the)- arrived in 
September. 1847. -In 1848 Mr. Allen made 
imily home at Mill Creek, Utah, in a little 
abin he there erected, later becoming one 
of the earliest pioneers of Draper. Utah. 
Thereafter he was called to strengthen a settle- 



ment in Arizona, then returned to Draper, 
where, on July 16, 1884, he was gored to death 
by a vicious bull. He was the head si 
trustee of Draper for over thirty years, and the 
first tree planted on the Draper schoolgrounds 
was set out in his honor. 

On the long and dangerous journey act'' ss 
the plains. Mrs. Allen was in charge of an ox 
team which she drove the entire journey, and 
her daughter remembers many thrilling inci- 
dents of Indian attacks upon the early Mormon 
settlements near Salt Lake, which have stored 
her mind with valuable reminiscences. She 
was one of a family of eleven children, seven 
1 >f whom attained maturity and five of whom 
are now living. Ensign Pearson, who was with 
Admiral Dewey on his flagship Olympia at the 
battle of Manila, is a nephew of Mrs. Bagley. 
Mrs. Bagley has been a constant and a very ac- 
tive member of the Relief Society of the Bear 
Lake stake since 1863. and she has done much 
more than an ordinary share of the benevolent 
work of the organization, devoting all of the 
ardor of her "strong nature year after year to 
the relief of the poor and the destitute. 

The children of these honored and vener- 
ated pioneers are thirteen in number, of whom 
we particularly note Hon. John A., attorney 
general of Idaho (see individual review else- 
where in this volume) ; Martha A. died at the 
age of four years at Paris. Idaho; Cyrenus J., 
a prominent stockman of Star Valley. Wyo. ; 
Edward A. died at Montpelier at the 
of twenty-two years; William H. died in 
Montpelier at the age of twenty years; Parley 
died at Montpelier at the age of eighteen y< 
David, now a leading merchant of Granger. 
Wyo. ; Percy M. ; Mary D., now the wife 
of Orrin Quayle, of Dingle. Idaho; Charles, a 
civil engineer residing in Montpelier; George 
Hugh: Thomas C. : L. Arley U. 

In their hospitable home in the mouth of 
the canyon at Montpelier the lives of this 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



117 



worth)' couple are passing quietly and unevent- 
fully, they being surrounded by all the care 
which filial reverence can give, and standing 
high in the esteem of the entire community, 
who honor them for their deep religious prin- 
ciples and their sterling worth. In conclusion 
we will state an experience in the farming oper- 
ations of Mr. Bagley in his early life in Mont- 
pelier, which strikingly illustrates the religious 
fortitude, patience and endurance of the early 
Mormon pioneers. For fourteen consecutive 
seasons he planted a field of potatoes only to 
have the growth killed by the frost year after 
year; not until the fifteenth year of planting 
did the elements vouchsafe him a crop. 

SQUIRE G. CROWLEY. 

This courteous, affable and distinctly pop- 
ular member of the real-estate firm of Crow- 
ley & Sons, of Idaho Falls, traces his lineage 
back to prominent families residing in the 
colonial period of the American republic in 
the distinguished commonwealth of Virginia, 
himself being born in Webster count}', Ky., 
in that state of gallantly receiving - his 
preliminary literary education and attaining 
the age of twenty-two years, then leaving the 
state of his birth and coming to that garden 
of the West, the territory of Utah, locating at 
Ogden, and, there continuing his education in 
its excellent schools, thereafter engaging in 
pedagogic labor and being a citizen of Utah 
until 1886. He was born on February 20, 
1852, a son of Benjamin and Henrietta (Mc- 
Clendon) Crowley, his father being a native of 
Virginia where he was born in 1814, a son of 
Benjamin Crowley, a representative agricul- 
turist of Virginia. 

Benjamin Crowlev early enfigrated to 
Webster county, Ky., and was connected 
with agricultural operations there until his 
death in 1873. Mrs. Henrietta Crowley was 



born in Virginia in 18 16, a daughter of John 
and Mary McClendon, both of whom were 
natives and representatives of families long 
connected with many events of importance in 
that state from the colonial period, she being 
a woman of remarkable mental powers and 
physical endurance and residing on the old 
family homestead in Webster county, Ky., 
until her death, on August 3, 1903, be- 
ing the mother of fourteen children, seven 
sons and seven daughters, of whom are now 
living two sons and two daug'hters. 

Following the experience of his life in 
Utah Mr. Crowley came to Bingham county. 
Idaho, in 1886, and located on a homestead of 
160 acres, the nucleus of his present product- 
ive and finely improved ranch of 160 acres, 
it being located at Iona, eight miles north- 
east of Idaho Falls, where he gave his active 
attention and personal endeavors for sixteen 
years to the development of his property, be- 
ing successful in his labors and conducting 
diversified farming and the raising of horses, 
cattle and sheep with a marked degree of 
success. 

A man of mental activity and public spirit, 
he was from the first interested in everything 
of a public nature and character that promised 
to benefit the community, county or state. 
He was identified with the Republican party, 
with whose principles and policies he was in 
hearty accord, and was elected and served 
with distinctive ability as a county' assessor 
for one term. During his residence on his 
ranch in 1896, he formed a business associa- 
tion with Mr. H. K. Linger, they opening an 
office and maintaining their headquarters in 
Idaho Falls, where they had a business of dis- 
tinctive importance; after one year's partner- 
ship the firm was changed to Crowley & Sons. 
They have a wide acquaintanceship with the 
country over a large territory, and have ac- 
quired a patronage of highly appreciative and 



n8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



representative citizens. In November, 1902, 
Mr. Cnnvley was elected justice of the peace, 
which office he has since held with the ac- 
ceptance of the people.. 

Mr. Crowley, on October 18, 1875. wedded 
with Miss Harriet A. Hutchens, a native of 
Utah and a daughter of William B. and Mary 
E. (Stone) Hutchens. her father being a na- 
tive of Tennessee, and migrating with his 
family to Utah in 1850, where for thirty-five 
years, until his death in 1885, he was prom- 
inently identified with the affairs of the com- 
munity and the church, heing a member of 
the city council of Ogden, and a highly es- 
teemed councilor and bishop of the Mormon 
church. His widow still resides at the family 
home in Ogden. Mr. and Mrs. Crowley's 
family circle has embraced twelve children, 
seven sons and five daughters, namely: Wm. 
B., deceased ; Clarence E. ; Mary H. ; Jesse J. ; 
Ethel A.; Charles R. ; Nellie C. deceased; 
Ansel S. ; Eugene D. ; Blanche E. ; Olive A. 
and an unnamed son. 

A cajiable. representative business man, 
Mr. Crowley possesses a winning magnetism 
that quietly and quickly attracts people, and 
on extended acquaintance they become his 
permanent friends. He is earnest and per- 
sistent in his labors, makes no noise or furore 
in his proceedings but steadily moves things 
to harmonize with his purposes, and is success- 
ful as he deserves to he. He is ever in 
harmony with all that tends to elevate the 
community, and is a potent factor in the bet- 
ter element of the community, in which his 
family holds a distinctive place. 

JONATHAN DAVIES, Sk. 

Among the pioneers of Bingham coiritv. 
there is none who is held in higher esteem and 
honor than the estimable subject of this re- 
view. Jonathan Da vies, who has played an im- 



portant part in furthering the progress of this 
section of the state, having been long con- 
sidered as a leader among the farmers and 
stockraisers of the county, and being one 
whose judgment and mental equipments have 
fitted him to perform the duties of important 
trusts, and caused him to leave the impress of 
his strong personality upon the commu ity. 
He was born on January 17, 1836, at Liver- 
pool, England, the son of John and Margaret 
(Grace) "Davies. For a long term of years and 
for many generations his lines of ance>tor~ 
can be traced back in the British Isles, his pa- 
ternal grandfather. John Davies. being a na- 
tive of Wales, but passing a greater part of his 
life in England and dying in Liverpo '1. 

The father of Mr. Davies was horn in Liv- 
erpool and emigrated from that city to the 
United States in 1847 with his wife and chil- 
dren, residing in New York until 1850. when 
their religious inclinations brought them to 
Utah, the}" cheerfully undertaking the long, 
wearisome journey across the plains in a 
Mormon caravan of ox teams. After arriving 
in Utah the family home was made in Xephi. 
where the father passed away in 1868, at the 
age of fifty-four years. The mother, whi 
born in 1817. survived her husband until 
1882, when she too was laid in the church 
cemetery at Nephi. She was the daughter of 
John and Margaret (Abbott) Grace, natives 
of England, where her father lived his entire 
life and died. His widow, Margaret, came 
to Utah in 1851, but her life in her new 
home was of short duration and she died in 
[ 853- 

Jonathan Davies was a lad of eleven years 
of age at the time of his father's emigration to 
this country, he with his mother following 
four vears later, they coming direct to Utah. 
He remained a member of the paternal house- 
hold until 1858. when he commenced life 
for himself by giving his attention to agricul- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



119 



tural pursuits in Juab county, being prospered 
in his undertakings and remaining there for 
twenty-nine years. Then he removed to Star 
Valley, Wyo., where for three years he 
was engaged in stockraising, thence coming 
to Bingham county, Idaho, where was larger 
scope and range for the extensive prosecution 
of the special branch of husbandry to which 
he had devoted his attention. He located on 
Willow Creek in 1883, at a point fourteen 
miles northeast of Idaho Falls, where he filed 
upon a desert claim of 200 acres, which he 
has greatly improved by erecting thereon a 
fine residence and suitable buildings, cor- 
rals, etc., rendering it a model place for stock- 
raising operations, while to his original claim 
he has since added forty acres of valuable 
land. He has been identified with the Demo- 
cratic party for a long term of years, his coun- 
sel and advice being frequently sought by 
his party associates, and he has held, with 
great satisfaction to the people, the offices of 
justice of the peace and of school trustee. 

It is in the important department cf cat- 
tleraising that Mr. Davies takes most delight. 
The care and improvement of his large herds 
of Shorthorn and Durham cattle have largely 
occupied his time, and his endeavors along 
this line.have been object lessons for good to 
the community, awakening others by his ex- 
ample and his efforts to the fact that steady 
improvement is necessary to enable the stock- 
man of this section to keep pace with prog- 
ress elsewhere. In his opinion it is nearly 
time that the "scrub steer" ' should disappear 
from the ranches of Idaho, and his endeavors 
in this direction are entitled to 'the highest 
commendation. 

Mr. Davies was married on May u, 1858, 
with Miss Jane Cole, the father marrying in 
England and with his wife emigrating to the 
United States, locating in Illinois, in 1840, 
where he lived but three years and then died 



at the age of forty-five, his widow coming 
later to Utah, where she died at Nephi in 1868, 
being then sixty-eight years of age, and the 
mother of six living children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Davies have been the par- 
ents of twelve children: Mary, Emma J., 
Margaret A., Jonathan, Isaac E., deceased, 
Rosanna, William J., Martha E., Evan, Lu- 
cetta and Grace. 

All the esteem and reverence that should 
be given to people having the distinction of 
being pioneers accrues to Mr. and Mrs. 
Davies. His wife was a pioneer of Salt Lake 
City in its very early stages of development, 
dating her residence in that place from the 
year of 1847, while Mr. Davies is o::e of the 
noted figureheads remaining of the small pio- 
neer band that founded Nephi City. 

MORONI DAYTON. 

Descending from ancestors standing 
among the leading pioneer citizens of the state 
of Ohio, his grandfather being the founder of 
and a large owner in the original townsite of 
the present city of Dayton, and being the son 
of one of the earliest" men of Ohio to align him- 
self in the ranks of the "Children of Zion," this 
grand old patriarch of Bear Lake county, 
Idaho, is surely entitled to a review in any 
work that has for its object the preservation of 
the lives of the progressive men of the past and 
present of this section of Idaho. Moroni Day- 
ton was born in Parkman, Java county. Ohio, 
on September 3, 1834, the son of Hyrum and 
Parmelia (Bundy) Dayton, the father being a 
native of Ohio and the mother of Tennessee. 

Hyrum Dayton was early in authority in 
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
Saints, and accompanied the migration from 
Kirtland, Ohio, to Nauvoo, Ills., where he was 
connected with the momentous events which 
ended in the transfer of the seat of Mormon 



120 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



power to the new lands of Utah, to which ter- 
ritory he came in 1850, residing thereafter in 
Cedar Fort. Utah, until his death in Novem- 
ber, 1882. he having survived the mother of 
our subject but a few months, her demise tak- 
ing place in January, 1882. For years Hyrum 
Dayton was in some prominent office of the 
church, being considered a man of great men- 
tal powers and executive ability, and as one of 
the Seventies, as president of the twelfth 
quorum and as a high priest he gave devoted 
service to the church of his adoption. 

Coming to Utah in 1849, Moroni Dayton 
soon pressed on to California where he passed 
two years, then returning to Cedar Fort, Utah, 
he remained in the land of Zion until 1882. 
when he came to his present location in Bear 
Lake Valley. Idaho, where he resided until his 
death on April 14, 1902. A man of robust 
health, clear and well-formed opinions, and ag- 
ricultural skill, he took the wild sagebrush 
land and transformed it by his wise and dis- 
criminating development and culture until it 
became a veritable garden, well repaying him 
for the care and labor he had given to its im- 
provement. He was the pioneer of wheat- 
raising in Dingle, his success in this line being 
a direct stimulant to others, who followed 
where he led the way. 

His home ranch, now conducted by his 
widow, consists of eighty acres of productive 
farm land, highly improved and well-watered, 
having a substantial and commodious residence 
and suitable outbuildings, corrals, etc.. for the 
demands of his farming and extensive cattle- 
raising operations, which, however, are no 
longer conducted. He had also a fine tract of 
hay land in the valley, his operations being 
prospered financially. In the broader range of 
public sentiment, he was held in great respect 
as a leader of the community and a sterling 
type of the old pioneer period. He suffered for 
his faith. At the time when the troops of Utah 



were called out to repress the invading army 
of General Johnston he was a member of the 
army which opposed the invaders and his build- 
ings and a large amount of hay were burned 
in consequence of his action in resisting the 
troops. 

Mr. Dayton married Miss Sarah Nichols 
on August 12. 1855. She is the daughter of 
Joseph and Sarah (Newland) Nichols, natives 
of Warwickshire, England, where she was also 
born on March 28, 1834. The family came f o 
Utah in 1853. in 1854 locating at Cedar Val- 
ley, where was the parents" home ever after, 
the father dying on January 7. 1850. the 
mother surviving until January 13, 1874. Mr. 
Dayton became the father of eleven children : 
Frances M.. born November 14. 1856: Charles 
and William, twins, born April 5. 1859, died in 
infancy; Hyrum A., born April 22, i860: 
Sarah J., born September 1, 1862. died Jan- 
uary 2. 1865: Theodore, born March 4. 1865; 
Etta C. born July 20. 1867; Frederick, bom 
September 18. 1869, died April 26, 1874; 
George C, horn April 26. 1872. died March 
11, 1875: Elizabeth A., born June 5. 1875; 
Parmelia M.. born February 17. 1878. Mr. 
Dayton has sixty-five grandchildren and two 
great-grandchildren and eight of his sons are 
established in homes of their own in Dingle 
Valley, all being ranchers and highly respected 
citizens. 

During his Utah residence Mr. Dayton 
held several public offices and later was in 
the incumbency of those of priest and president 
of the Elders' Corps. To use the words of an- 
other, written during his life. "In him is seen 
an example' of the fruit of a life well spent, and 
his long years of residence in the inter-moun- 
tain region have been replete with all the varied 
experiences of the anxious pioneer and the 
well-to-do citizen, and the happiness of age has 
settled upon him as a rich bounty for the deeds 
of the past." 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



121 



DAN DENNING. 

A clearsighted, ambitious agriculturist, 
possessed of marked executive ability and who 
by his diligent attention to the opportunities 
presented in this undeveloped section of 
Idaho has won marked success, the subject of 
this sketch, Dan Denning, is a native of the. 
state, having been born in Montpelier, a son 
of James and Sarah (Marifield) Denning, 
both of whom are natives of. England and 
parents of thirteen children. They left their 
pleasant farm in their native land in 1845, 
crossing the ocean and the plains with the 
Morman contingent, passing wearisome 
weeks with the ox train of the western por- 
tion of their journey and locating at Bounti- 
ful, Utah, whence after a serirs of years they 
removed to Malad. The father died in 1899, 
the mother surviving him but one year, when 
she too passed away, both being faithful and. 
exemplary members of the Mormon church, 
and held in veneration and esteem in the va- 
rious communities where they resided. 

Dan Denning, who was born on April 14, 
1868, early attained maturity and assumed 
the charge of his own support, for at the age 
of eighteen years, in 1880, he came to. Bing- 
ham county, and, locating rear Ammon, there 
established his home upon a tract of la'd 
upon which he has bestowed a large amount 
of labor and has developed into a pleasant 
home, rendering it. by means of irrigation and 
suitable culture, a very noticeable and pro- 
ductive place. It yields large annual crops of 
the various agricultural products cultivated in 
this section, and his stock operations bid fair 
to become in due time of great scope and im- 
portance. Mr. Denning was married on De- 
cember 16, 1889, with Miss Sarah A. Jones, 
a native of Utah, and a daughter of James and 
Emma (Foxwell) Jones, who were natives of 
Wales and England. The familv of Mr. Den- 



ning consists of five children : Dan, Clarence, 
Burt, Sarah and Nathan. Mr. Denning pos- 
sesses a genial manner, a generous nature and 
a deeply religious deportment, which makes 
him not only a most agreeable companion, 
but a true type of an honest-hearted man, 
thus constituting him an excellent citizen of 
the community, and he takes an active part 
in developing every plan and scheme of the 
public interest of a local character tending to 
the good of the community and was one of the 
builders of the irrigation canals. 

DON C. DRIGGS. 

A typical son of the West, bold, independ- 
ent and unflagging in his performance of 
every duty, Don C. Driggs, the president of 
Teton stake, and a popular merchant of the 
little town of Driggs, has for seventeen years 
been assiduously occupied in the laborious 
improvement of this naturally unforbidding" 
section of the country. His activity has been 
ceaseless, his operations cumulative and of 
importance. The lives of such persons are 
full of action and incident, and the methods 
they employ, and the changes incidental to 
their attainment of success, will, if prcperly 
preserved in volumes like the present, serve 
as encouragement and incentive to number- 
less generations of the coming future. 

Mr. Driggs was born on November 20, 
1864, at Pleasant Grove. Utah, a son of Ben- 
jamin W. and Alma (Pratt) Driggs, natives 
of Ohio and Illinois, the father coming as a 
boy to Utah and being reared aid educated 
at Pleasant Grove, where he at first conducted 
farming, later turning his attention to mer- 
chandising, which he still propemusly con- 
ducts, not only being successful in business, 
but prominent and influential in the community 
and county, filling with marked ability various 
important town offices, and in the Mor- 



122 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



mon church holding the office of one of the 
Seventies. He was the son of Shadrach 
Driggs, born in Ohio of English ancestry, who 
also came to Utah with his wife Eliza, that he 
might enjoy the full benefits of his religion, 
and followed his trade of wheelwright at 
Pleasant Grove during the remainder of his 
active life, then "joining the Great Majority" 
at an advanced age. The maternal grand- 
parents Of Don C. Driggs were Perley P. and 
Mary A. (Stevens) Pratt, who lived succes 
sively in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, and in 
1847 came with the first consignment of im- 
migrants to Utah, the family home being 
maintained at Salt Lake City until 1857. in 
which year the father was killed in Kansas 
where he was engaged in missionary work, 
being then fifty-two years of age. The mother 
of Mr. Driggs is now living at Pleasant Grove. 
Utah, at the age of sixty years, being the 
mother of twelve children. 

Don C. Driggs, the founder of the town of 
Driggs, received his primary education at 
Pleasant Grove, supplementing this by an at- 
tendance at the Brigham Young Academy a' 
Prove, Utah, graduating therefrom in the 
class of '85, and thereafter under his father' - 
competent tutelage he became well grounded 
in the principles and financial laws underly- 
ing successful merchandising, and coming to 
his present location in Fremont county in 
1888 and opening a general store, securing 
the establishment of the postoffice bearing his 
name, and in which he was commissioned 
postmaster, founding the little town, which 
under his wise management has become a 
brisk center of industry and trade, and in con- 
nection with all this engagi ig in stockraising 
and ranching. 

As a man of business Mr. Driggs is both 
acute in perceiving capabilities and ardent in 
the presentation of them to others, always 
prompt and persevering in promoting plans 



and pursuits calculated to advance and de- 
velop the resources of the county "i" advance 
the moral and religious interests of the com- 
munity. He has most capably filled impor- 
tant trusts. As the candidate of the Demo- 
cratic party he was elected county commis- 
sioner of Fremont county in 1808, and did 
most excellent service in the incumbency of 
that office and he is also the honored presi- 
dent of Teton stake of the Church of Latter 
Day Saints. In all his public and private re 
lations he is highly respected and esteemed 
for his integrity, his generous and beneficent 
public spirit and the soundness of his judg- 
ment. 

A pleasant marriage union was formed 
on July 3, 1889. between Mr. Driggs and Miss 
May O. Robison, a native of Pleasant < irove. 
Utah, and a daughter of Lewis an 1 Louisa 
(Gheen) Robison, natives of Ohio and Indiana 
. and early pioneers of Utah, where the father 
died in August. 1883. and the mother is still 
residing, being the mother of eight children. 
The family circle of Mr. Driggs is rounded 
out and cheered by the following children: 
Lynne L.. Vida P.. Elwood W., and Douglas 
H., while two others, Florence F. and Don C. 
are deceased. 

ALLEX R. CUTLER. M. D. 

Although less than four years a resident of 
Preston as a practicing physician and surgeon. 
Dr. Allen R. Cutler is one of the leading pro- 
fessional men of the county and he is also 
prominent and active in business, social and 
church circles. His native mental power and 
force of character are such that in making his 
way in the world and impressing the public 
mind with his capacity in any line of effort in 
which he chooses to engage the element of time 
is in his case only incidental, and subsidiary, as 
he is recognized at once, wherever he becomes 




^£&& 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES. IDAHO. 



125 



known, as a man of superior endowment and 
capability. He was born on December 22, 
1862, at American Fork Canyon, Utah county, 
Utah, the son of Royal J. and Theda A. (Mor- 
ton) Cutler, natives of New York, the father 
being born on February 1, 1828, at Amboy, 
Oswego county, N. Y., the son of Harmon and 
Susannah (Barton) Cutler, Harmon being a 
native of Dover, N. Y., and Susannah Barton 
of Cobleskill, N. Y. 

They settled in Amboy, from which place 
he removed, on August 6, 1840, with his wife 
and seven children in a wagon he had made, as 
he was an expert wheelwright, on a trip to Nau- 
voo, 111., which lasted fifty davs, his object 
being' to unite his fortunes with the Mormon 
church, of which they had become devoted 
members. About two months after they ar- 
rived at Nauvoo, on November 21. 1840, the 
wife Susannah died. In the summer of 1842 
Mr. Cutler married Lucy A. Pettigrew, at Nau- 
voo. On May 25, 1846. he changed the family 
home to Council Bluffs, where he soon had a 
large farm under cultivation, and resided until 
June, 1852, when he started with his family 
for Utah. When near Fort Laramie they were 
attacked by Indians, who robbed them of their 
horses and they were compelled to use oxen as 
their motive power for the remaining 750 miles 
of their journey to Salt Lake, where they ar- 
rived near the close of September, 1852. He 
located in Salt Lake county and was there a 
prosperous citizen until his death on January 6, 
1869. 

As a member of his father's family Royal 
J. Cutler accompanied him to Nauvoo and to 
Council Bluffs. - During the residence at Coun- 
cil Bluffs he was employed in missionary work 
in New York, where he met and married with 
Miss Theda A. Morton, on March 25, 1852, 
and then returned west and with his wife, in 
company with his father's family, crossed the 
plains to Salt Lake City. After a short resi- 



dence there they settled on a homestead about 
eleven miles south of the city, removing a little 
later to Utah county and locating at American 
Fork Canyon. There the father became inter- 
ested in milling, and was occupied in conduct- 
ing grist, lumber and shingle mills. In or 
about 1867, he, with a number of other persons, 
went to southern Utah for the purpose of es- 
tablishing a trail having settlements on it be- 
tween that part of the territory and California, 
in order to promote travel through that region, 
which was and is known as the Muddy Coun- 
try. This enterprise was soon abandoned on 
account of the poor facilities for traffic it af- 
forded, and Mr. Cutler then settled at Glen- 
dale, in Kane county, where he remained until 
his death, engaged in farming and in raising 
sheep and some -cattle, being one of the earliest 
sheepgrowers in southern Utah. He always 
took a leading part in church work, serving as 
bishop of his ward at Glendale for fifteen years ; 
and in public affairs, affecting- the welfare of 
the community, his activity and wisdom were 
such that he was recognized generally as one 
of the most progressive and representative cit- 
izens of the county. His death occurred in 
1893, since which time his widow has lived 
part of the time at Glendale and part at Pres- 
ton, where she now makes her home in a com- 
fortable residence not far from that of the Doc- 
tor. 

Doctor Cutler grew to manhood from an 
early age at Glendale and attended the public 
schools of that section, remaining at home with 
•his parents until he was twenty-one years old. 
In 1883 he entered Brigham Young Academy 
at Provo, and he was graduated from the nor- 
mal department with honors in May, 1887. 
He then received a certificate of qualification as 
a teacher, but, before beginning work in this 
profession, he was sent on a mission for the 
church to the Carolinas, where he remained for 
seventeen months. On his return, in the winter 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



of 1888, he organized an academy at Panguitch 
in Garfield county. Utah, and took charge of 
it as principal. At the end of the term, in 
1889, he entered the L. D. S. College at Salt 
Lake City and went through the scientific 
course. 

In 1890 he was married and was soon after 
appointed principal of the Sevier Stake Acad- 
emy at Richfield, Utah. He remained there 
hut one term, then went home to take charge 
of his father's business, which he managed for 
two years. At the end of that time he again 
accepted the principalship of the Sevier Stake 
Academy for the year of 1893-4. In the fall 
of 1894 he became principal of the schools at 
Orderville, in Kane county, and he held this 
position two years, being also county superin- 
tendent during the last year. In the fall of 
1896, having determined to devote himself per- 
manently to the profession of medicine and 
surgery, he went to Baltimore. Md., and ma- 
triculated at the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in that city, from which he was grad- 
uated on April 18, 1899, with high honors in 
his class and with special diplomas in operative 
surgery, diseases of women and children, and 
of the eye and ear. He spent the summer look- 
ing over his native state for a suitable location 
in which to practice, and in the fall decided to 
settle at Preston. Idaho, where he at once 
bought the attractive residence which he now 
occupies, located one block from the main 
street of the town. 

Fnnn that time until the present writing 
he has been actively engaged in the practice of 
his profession, in both general and special lines, 
and has been very successful, building up a 
large practice embracing i n its patronage the 
best people of the community, and he has ably 
demonstrated his capacity to meet its require- 
ments in full measure. He has passed the 
boards of medical examiners of both Utah and 
Idaho, and is qualified to practice in both 



states and does so. He is an active and serv- 
iceable member of the Idaho State Medical So- 
ciety, and gives loyal and helpful, support to 
every element of progress and improvement in 
his profession, as he does to every good under- 
taking for the advantage of the community in 
general. 

In church affairs his zeal never flags and 
his work is abvavs effective. In February, 
1902, he was appointed bishop of the Fourth 
ward by President George C. Parkinson of the 
Preston stake, and in his hands the interests 
of the ward have flourished and prospered. In 
the mercantile life of the town he is an impor- 
tant factor, being a member of the Dames-Cut- 
ler Co.. a merchandising firm, which does a 
large and important business and the Doctor is 
also a stockholder in the Cooperative Drug Co. 

On May 22, 1890, at Salt Lake City, Doctor 
Cutler married Miss Lucy M. Hardy, a native 
of that place and a daughter of Charles W. 
and Marinda (Andrews) Hardy, the former a 
native of Massachusetts and the latter of Utah. 
The father is a civil engineer with headquar- 
ters at the Mormon capital, and has been em- 
ployed on many of the greatest engineering 
achievements for railroad and other companies 
in the Northwest. Doctor and Mrs. Cutler have 
five children living. Allen R.. Jr., Carl H.. 
Charles William, Elvin J. and Orvid Ray. 
Their first born child, Lucy M. Cutler, died on 
September 22. 1893, aged two years and a few 
months. 

A. P. DOLBFFR. 

This gentleman is fully entitled to the dis- 
tinction of being one of the earliest pioneers of 
the thrifty town of Bancroft, Bannock county, 
Idaho, since in t8qj he there made his resi- 
dence and laid the foundation for one of the 
very first stores of tlie incipient city, going him- 
self into the mountains and by his personal 
labors cuttinsf out the necessary timber there- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES,, IDAHO. 



127 



for, commencing his operations on December 
1st and having the building- completed before 
the Christmas holidays. Such compilations as 
this volume are intended to perpetuate the 
lives and .activities of such energetic, forcible 
and progressive men of their respective com- 
munities, who, by their labors and intelligent 
supervision of affairs, have transformed desert 
wildernesses into communities of advanced civ- 
ilization such as we see in the Bancroft of to- 
day. 

Mr. Dolbeer descends from an old-time and 
reputable family long resident in Holland, but 
taking part in the emigration that resulted in 
the creation of that Knickerbocker colony that 
founded New Amsterdam on Manhattan Is- 
land, now the famous metropolis. New York 
city. He was born at Mt. Morris, Livingston 
county, N. Y., on March 19, 1869, being a son 
of Henry E. and Eucetta (Sickles) Dolbeer, 
the mother being an own cousin of the cele- 
brated Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, of the Civil 
war. 

Receiving his preliminary education in the 
public schools of his native place, and being 
graduated from the high school, Mr. Dolbeer 
of this writing thereafter was engaged in dili- 
gent labors in connection with plumbing opera- 
tions in New York state until 1890, when he 
became a citizen of Idaho, making his home at 
Pocatello, until he came, as before stated, to 
Bancroft in 1892. Devoting himself largely to 
merchandising in association with his brother, 
Eli J. Dolbeer, of Pocatello, under the firm 
name of Dolbeer Bros., an extensive mercan- 
tile business has been developed, and not only 
a full line of general merchandise has been dis- 
played for sale, but also the most extensive 
farm machinery, implements, wagons, etc., is 
kept by them, their trade having attained great 
proportions and the reputation of their house 
and the quality of their goods extending be- 
yond the confines of the county. 



Mr. Dolbeer is also doing his part in. the 
development of the industries of the state, 
having a fertile farm of 280 acres in the im- 
mediate vicinity of Bancroft, where he raises 
fine crops of hay and grain, in connection 
therewith running large herds of horses, cattle 
and sheep. In all of his undertakings he has 
been a favored son of fortune, and, from his 
deportment, generous and liberal dealing, great 
public spirit in connection with local affairs of 
a public nature, he well deserves the extended 
popularity which has been accorded him. In 
March, 1899, he was commissioned postmaster 
of Bancroft postoffice, and is now the popular 
incumbent of that position. Politically he is in 
hearty accord with the principles and policies 
of the Republican party, and his counsels and 
personal labors are heartily given towards its 
success in its various campaigns, while frater- 
nally he is a valued member of the Masonic 
fraternity, affiliating with the lodge at Poca- 
tello. 

Mr. Dolbeer was united in marriage, on 
March 27, 1898, with Miss Mary Morris, a 
native of Ohio' and a daughter of John and 
Eliza (Worley) Morris, also natives of Ohio, 
the father being of an ancient Welsh lineage, 
long domiciled however on American soil. Mr. 
Dolbeer has just completed one of the model 
residences of the county, a fine brick building 
of ten rooms, of thoroughly modern style, arch- 
itecture and equipment, and here he and his es- 
timable wife extend a most cordial hospitality 
to their large circle of friends. 

JAMES DYE. 

Among the valuable, intelligent and en- 
terprising citizens of the Basalt district of 
Bingham county, Idaho, who, although com- 
paratively a young man, is taking an active 
part in the pioneer development in that still 
primitive section of the state, James Dye, who 



128 



PROGRESSII'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



was born in Riverdale, Utah, on January ~. 
1872. a son of Richard and Alary (Peek) Dye, 
well deserves mention in this connection. For 
particulars concerning- the history of his par- 
ents and other data concerning their ances- 
tral record the reader is respectively referred 
to the sketch of William Ah Dye. a brother of 
James Dye, which is published on other pages 
of this volume. 

James Dye attained manhood in Utah, and 
as a diligent and industrious youth he availed 
himself of. the advantages of the neighbor- 
hood schools and remained connected with the 
parental homestead until he attained his ma- 
jority, when, ,in 1893. he came to Bingham 
count}' and purchased the land on which he 
now resides, consisting of fifty-four and one- 
half acres of highly productive, fertile and 
eligibly located land, and, from that time to 
the present, he has been industriously engaged 
in general farming, and in the construction of 
irrigation canals, to which he has given es- 
pecial attention. 

He is a man of understanding and intelli- 
gence in public affairs, a citize i prominent 
and enterprising, a neighbor with the highest 
sense of integrity, liberality and kindness, be- 
ing considered a wise councilor and an en- 
ergetic associate. A man of devout tendencies 
and principles, he is prominently connected 
with the Church of Latter Day Saints and 
holds the position of elder, being held in the 
greatest esteem by all the members of the 
church. 

On October 25, 1893. at Salt Lake, Utah, 
occurred the marriage of Mr. Dye with Miss 
Mary Elizabeth Pike, a native of Utah and 
a daughter of Robert and Adeline (Woods) 
Pike, natives respectively of England and 
Massachusetts, but for years valued and repre- 
sentative citizens of the territory and state of 
Utah. Mr. and Mrs. Dye have the following 
named children: Luella. May. Sarah. Edith. 



James D., Grace Adeline, Robert Earnest. 
A quiet and unassuming gentleman, Mr. Dye 
has a large circle of friends who hold him in 
the highest esteem for his sterling integrity, 
his deep sincerity and earnestness o' purp 
while in the social and domestic relati >ns of 
life he manifests a most devoted unselfishness 
and is not only an esteemed neighbor, but a 
most devoted husband and father. 

ISAAC A. DWIGHT. 

Descending from one of the oldest families 
of New England and showing well-defined 
characteristics of his sterling forefatl 
Isaac A. Dwight. now of Rexburg. Idaho, was 
born at Geneva. N. Y., the son of Isaac and 
Elizabeth (Hardenberg) Dwight. the father 
having his birth at Homer, Cortland county. 
X. Y., on May 4, 1804. and dying at Jefferson 
City, Mo., on January 18. 1895. being a great- 
grandson of a surgeon of a British man-of-war 
during the American Revolution (this su! : 
being a grandfather of the famous Presby- 
terian divine and theologian. Rev. Jonathan 
Edwards. D. D.) and the grand-nephew of 
Rev. Timothy Dwight. D. D.. the celebrated 
president of Yale College. At the age _vf 
twenty-four years he married Elizabeth Har- 
denberg. of Knickerbocker stock, and for many 
years he was engaged in both farming and the 
nursery business at Geneva. X. Y.. the great 
Eastern center of that department of agricul- 
ture. In 1858 he moved to Cole county. Mo., 
where he purchased 215 acres of land and was 
occupied with farming during his active life, 
being eighty-six years of age at the time of his 
death, his wife having preceded him to the 
Silent Land in June. 1891, both being con- 
sistent Methodists in religious faith. 

Isaac A. Dwight was the youngest of a 
family of five children, three of his brothers 
o-ivino- loyal service to the Union in the Civil 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



129 



war. Brought up with intelligent instruction in 
educational studies and the basic principles of 
a scientific and practical knowledge of general 
farming" and nursery propagation, after attain- 
ing his majority he continued in the same vo- 
cations for three years thereafter, then jour- 
neyed to Utah, where was his home until 1872 ; 
from that year until 1876 he was engaged in 
raising cattle near AVells. Nevada. Returning 
thence to Utah, he passed a period of time 
there in prospecting and mining, then engaged 
in the stockraising industry, later removing his 
cattle to Idaho, where he lost the most of them. 
Thereafter, in 1889, he became connected with 
the Armour Cattle Co. for four years, and he 
is now identified with mining operations in 
Nevada. He has ever shown himself inter- 
ested in all things which make for the develop- 
ment or the improvement of society, is a liberal 
contributor to public necessities and private 
benefactions, and was for several years a val- 
ued member of the Odd Fellows lodge at 
Blackfoot, Idaho. He made his home at Rex- 
burg in October, 1889, and is both popular and 
esteemed among his friends and associates, and 
in politics he is identified with the principles 
and policies of the Silver Republican party. 

At High Point, Mo., on the 1st of October, 
1872, were solemnized the marriage cere- 
monies uniting Mr. Dwight and Miss Emily 
L. Skewes, who was born in Cornwall. Eng- 
land, on October 6, 185 1, as a daughter. of Wil- 
liam and Sarah (Billings) Skewes. The chil- 
dren of this harmonious union have been 
Charles C, born on January 19, 1874; Al- 
mond, born on April 13, 1875, died on April 
13, 1888; Elizabeth C, born on June 21, 1877, 
died on September 21. 1902; William and 
John, twins, born on February 14, 188 1, of 
whom William served in Company E, First 
Idaho Volunteers, in the Philippine service of 
the Spanish-American war, having a good 
record and participating in seventeen engage- 



ments; Sarah, born on May 19, 1882, married 
with Mr. A. B. Hoagland, of St. Anthony, 
Idaho; Leriore, born on June 16, 1886. 

William Skewes was born in County Cam- 
bourne, Cornwall, England, on July 19, 1827. 
In 1866 he emigrated, going to California with 
his family and settling in Grass Valley, whence, 
after two years passed in mining operations, he 
started for Mexico, but, by reason of the 
strong hostility of the Indians, he was forced 
to return to California, from there in 187 1 re- 
moving to Salt Lake City, which was his home 
until his death, on November 18, 1891, and 
there the mother now resides. He was for a 
time engaged in extensive prospecting trips in 
the various mineral sections within easy dis- 
tance of the city. In 1879 he founded at Salt 
Lake City the undertaking establishment of 
William Skewes & Sons, which was conducted 
until the year of his death. Fraternally he 
belonged to both the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. 

DAVID C. EAMES. 

1 

Actively engaged in farming and raising 

stock from his youth, and applying to his busi- 
ness the progressiveness and desire for im- 
provement for which he is noted, David C. 
Eames, of Preston, Oneida county, Idaho, is 
easily one of the leading and most successful 
ranchmen and stockgrowers in this part of the 
country, and the appearance of his highly cul- 
tivated and well-appointed farm is proof to the 
most casual observer that he is an excellent 
farmer and man of decided enterprise. He is 
a native of Salt Lake City, born on September 
i, 185 1. His parent's, David and Esther (Cul- 
len) Eames, the former a native of Wales and 
the latter of England, were converted to the 
Mormon faith in Great Britain and came to the 
United States in 1850, making the passage 
across the Atlantic in the same vessel, on 



T 3° 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



which they became acquainted and attached to 
each other, and when they readied St. Louis 
on their way to Utah they married. • 

At Salt Lake City the father worked at his 
trade as a carpenter, being- employed for years 
by the church. In i860 he moved to the vicin- 
ity of the present town of Logan and there 
settled on land which he acquired from the 
government. Settlement was just beginning 
in the Cache Valley, and he and his family 
were among the first pioneers to break into the 
wilderness. His life work was farming and 
raising stock, and he remained as a resident of 
Logan until his death, in November, 1889. 
His widow still lives in the old home on Main 
street, into which thev moved when thev first 
came to the place. 

Their son. David C. Eames, grew to man- 
hood and received his education at Logan, and 
then worked with his father on the farm until 
his marriage on December 29, 1877. To ac- 
quire a farm of his own he homesteaded land 
and devoted his energies to its development and 
culture, also conducting a stock business on bis 
own account. His estate was not far from 
Logan and he there remained until he sold out 
in 1882, and took up the farm on which he now 
lives, which is located two miles north of the 
village of Preston. There were some settlers 
in the neighborhood, but the country was still 
new. much of it being virgin to the plow. Mr. 
Eames took his place among the builders and 
developers of the community, and lay the steady 
application of industry and skill not only im- 
proved his own place and brought it to a high 
state of fertility, but at the same time gave to 
the community the benefit of his enterprise, 
wide knowledge and breadth of view. Thus 
he helped materially to develop the resources 
of the region and to open the highway to the 
great progress and improvement a few years 
have wrought in it. 

Mr. Eames has always been engaged in 



farming and stockraising since he began oper- 
ations, but during the last tew years he has 
been also heavily interested in sheep, meeting 
with a gratifying success. He is one of the 
representative farmers and citizens of Oneida 
county, and is generally respected and es- 
teemed as such. He has for many years taken 
an active part in church affairs, serving as 
a counsellor for Bishop William C. Parkinson 
for nine years, and as alternate high counsellor 
for President George C. Parkinson since 1899. 
He was married at Logan, Utah, on December 
29, 1877, to Miss Elizabeth Greaves, a native 
of Utah and a daughter of Joseph and Sarah 
(Cluley) Greaves. They have eight children. 
David G., Sarah P.. Elizabeth, R. May. Ariel,' 
Nathaniel, Leland and Ilah. For the history of 
the parents of Mrs. Eames, see sketch of her 
brother, Thomas C. Greaves, appearing else- 
where in this work. 

WILLIAM M. DYE. 

There is 10 more productive home within 
the confines of southeastern Idaho than that 
which has been developed in the vicinity of 
Basalt from the primitive sagebrush wilder- 
ness into productive fields, rich with the mani- 
festations of different developments of rural 
life and prosperity, by William M. Dye. who 
stands out prominertly as a man of marked 
force and individuality of character, fertile in 
resources, painstaking in industry, who gives 
wise care and discriminating efforts to every 
department of industry coming within the 
sci 'It of his operations. 

Mr. Dye was born at Riverdale, Utah, on 
March 26, 1865, a son of Richard and Mary 
Maiden I Peek) Dye. his parents coming to the 
United States from their nati.e land of Eng- 
land in 1856 and locating in Massachusetts, 
thereafter, in [860, coming to Utah, where 
thev became residents of Weber county and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



I3 1 



intelligently engaged in the prosperous farm- 
ing conducted in that section of the state, 
and where they still maintain their home. 
The father is now a venerated and honored 
member of the Church of Latter Day Saint;, 
holding for thirty years the superintendency 
of its local Sunday school, and at present dig- 
nified with the office of one of the Seventies. 
This estimable couple have had nine children : 
Adelaide, deceased. Richard T., William M., 
Joseph H., Elizabeth, deceased, James, Walter 
E., Samuel G. and Sarah G. 

William M. Dye passed his early years in 
diligent industry on the Weber county farm of 
his parents, availing himself of the educa- 
tional advantages of the excellent public 
schools of that locality, and conforming him- 
self so as to be considered one of the most 
promising youths of his native town, where he 
remained until he attained his majority. Then 
coming to Bingham county, in 1885, he home- 
steaded the land where he now resides, and 
with diligence and energy engaged in its de- 
velopment. His real-estate now consists of 
139 acres of well-improved, productive and 
fertile land, being a most beautiful place, and 
seven lots in Basalt townsite. 

Not only is Mr. Dye a skillful farmer, but 
his stockraising department is conducted in 
such a manner as to give him the distinction of 
being one of the representative stockmen of 
this section of the county. His energies have 
not been limited to these departments of in- 
dustrial activity, however, for he has given 
careful attention to horticulture, and has de- 
veloped a fine orchard upon his place; while 
futher than this, he is extensively and profit- 
ably engaged in the raising of bees, having 
one of the largest apiaries, not only of the 
county, but of the. state. 

By industry and prudence Mr. Dye has 
secured not only the ownership of his fertile 
farm but a steadily increasing annual income 



and competency, while, by his uniform kind- 
ness, courtesy and friendliness, he has acquired 
a large circle of friends and acquaintances. 
Faithfulness in the performance of every sec- 
ular and religious duty has secured for him 
the honor and respect of all, while his public 
spirit, his capacity for and his fidelity in office 
have been rewarded by his election to the of- 
fice of justice of the peace of his precinct, to 
which he is giving most satisfactory service, 
while in his church relations he is holding the 
position of one of the Se\ enties, and for a 
number of years has been teacher of the theo- 
logical department of the Sunday school, also 
being a stake officer of the local Young Men's 
Mutual Improvement Association. At Logan, 
Utah, on April 15, 1891, Mr. Dye and Miss Ju- 
lia A. Child were united in matrimony, she be- 
ing a native of Utah and a daughter of War- 
ren G. and Hannah A. Child. To this union 
have been born five bright and interesting" chil- 
dren : Ada A., Hannah E., deceased, Eva Z., 
Maiden W. and Barber D. 

EDMUND ELLSWORTH. 

Edmund Ellsworth, who is the eldest child 
of Edmund and Helen (Blair) Ellsworth, and 
eldest grandson of Brigham Young, the emi-~ 
nent president of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints, was born on August 7. 
1868, at Muddy, Arizona.- His early -educa- 
tional discipline was given at West Weber, 
under the superintendency of his capable 
mother, and supplemented' by an attendance at 
the Brigham Young College at Logan, from 
which he was graduated with the class of 1887, 
and, from the age of twenty years, when he 
took up a homestead on the Teton Island, in 
the Snake River Valley of Idaho, he has been 
actively engaged in the rural and progressive 
movements of the place and period, after two 
years of primitive farming engaging in the 



M- 



FROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



raising of horses of superior strains, and he is 
also becoming somewhat noted as an apiarist. 

In the preliminary work connected with the 
construction of the first canal of this portion 
of the valley. Mr. Ellsworth is entitled to the 
distinction of holding the plow which cut the 
first furrow of the work and he is now a stock- 
holder in the company that made the canal, the 
Parks and Lewisville Co. He takes the intelli- 
gent interest in political and public matters that 
all thoughtful citizens should do. has held the 
office of deputy assessor for four terms, per- 
forming the duties connected therewith, and 
with all oilier trusts that have come to him with 
fidelity, integrity and the same degree of thor- 
oughness and aptitude that have ever been 
shown in his private affairs. 

On March 25, 1889, at Idaho Falls. Mr. 
.Ellsworth married with Miss Edwina Walker, 
a daughter of William H. and O. Louisa (Bing- 
ham) Walker. She was born on January 24, 
1870. at Oak Creek, Utah, and in this state her 
parents now reside at Lewisville. The chil- 
dren el" this most harmonious marriage are 
Lydia, bom April 25. 1889; Clara, born De- 
cember 4, 1890; Orba, born November 4, 1892 ; 
Edmund F., born September 22, 1894; Gene- 
vieve, born September t, 1896; Bryan Y.. born 
June 30, 1899; John W.. born November 20, 
1 901. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth enjoy an unmeas- 
ured friendship in an unusually large range of 
acquaintance, gained by their public spirit, their 
cordiality, and the marked hospitality which is 
a decided feature of their attractive and cul- 
tured home. 

HON. JOSEPH C. RICH. 

The history of the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter Day Saints is one of the most mar- 
velous that has ever come within the realm of 
the pen of the historian. This religious body 



has ever been the avant courier of civilization, 
and its emissaries have dared all and endured 
all in forwarding the interests of their faith, 
holding no object as insuperable, no privation 
too severe, no temporal danger too great to 
swerve them from their course in carrying the 
benefits of their religion unto all sorts and con- 
ditions of men in everv clime. What has been 
accomplished in the originally inhospitable re- 
gions of the Great West during the epoch dat- 
ing hack to the early days, when the dominion 
of the Indian was disputed only by the wild 
beasts of the plains and mountain fastnesses, 
has passed more or less obscurely into the an- 
nals of history, but none will ever know the ab- 
solute self-abnegation, the arduous and unceas- 
ing toil, the deep religious fervor and the great 
humility of spirit which marked the efforts of 
the early pioneers of the church, when, as pio- 
neers, they introduced civilization into the bar- 
ren regions of the Great Salt Lake. 

These reflections are brought to mind in 
considering the ancestry and the eminently use- 
ful career of Judge Joseph C. Rich, now an 
eminent lawyer of Montpelier, Idaho, a sketch 
of whose activities must surely become a por- 
tion of any work treating of the representative 
and progressive men of the state of Idaho. He 
was horn in the city of Nauvoo, 111., on Jan- 
uary 16. 1841. a son of Gen. Charles C. and 
Sarah ( Pea) Rich, natives of Kentucky and In- 
diana, his father being a general in the state 
militia of Illinois, and, as one of the twelve 
apostles of the Mormon church, he was inti- 
mately connected with its leader and prophet, 
Joseph Smith, and his associate. Brigham 
Young, and being the captain of an advance 
company that made its long and weary way 
across the plains, where the members were 
encompassed by many perils, including assaults 
from hostile Indians, to Salt Lake City in the 
fall of 1847, and continuing his journey to 
California in 1849 to there secure a gathering 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



135 



place for a large emigration of Mormon people 
from Australia and other islands of the Pacific, 
and. there purchasing the extensive old San 
Bernardino ranch, later developed into the 
magnificent county of that name, as a suitable 
location for their settlement. 

Possessed of an active, energetic and exec- 
utive nature, Gen. C. C. Rich became a leading 
spirit, not only of the California colony, but 
also of Bear Lake county, Idaho, of which he 
was the organizer and public-spirited leader, in 
1863 moving hither with his family and con- 
structing the first house in the now thickly set- 
tled valley on the site of the present thriving 
town of Paris, the town-site of which he as- 
sisted in platting, the subject of this review be- 
ing the surveyor. General Rich was a promi- 
nent member of the early Idaho Legis- 
latures and also filled a mission to Eng- 
land and the continent of Europe in the 
interest of his church in i860 and 1861 
with remarkable success, after his return 
therefrom residing in Paris until his 
death, which occurred in 1883 at the age of 
seventy-five years. The parents of General 
Rich were Joseph and Nancy (O'Neil) Rich, 
natives of Maryland and Kentucky. Joseph 
Rich was a pioneer of Utah and of Bear Lake 
Valley, where he died in 1866, his wife being 
called to her long home two days after she 
reached the Salt Lake region in October, 1847. 
Joseph Rich was a son of Samuel Rich, a na- 
tive of Maryland, but of old English Colonial 
stock, his Maryland ancestors, as well as him- 
self, taking active and distinguished part in 
the tumultuous and vital affairs of their re- 
spective generations, their advent in America 
being during the earliest days of the Massachu- 
setts Colony. 

Whatever of distinction there is attaching 
to the term of "a pioneer of pioneers" must 
surely be credited to Judge Joseph C. Rich, 
since from his earliest days he has been on the 



very frontier of civilization. Receiving his 
early education in the primitive schools of Cali- 
fornia and Utah, where the facilities were ex- 
tremely meager, supplemented, however, in his 
case by ardent personal effort and study until 
his acquisitions were fully equal to the curricu- ■ 
lum of many universities, he became thor- 
oughly versed in the art and mystery of sur- 
veying and civil engineering, thereafter study- 
ing law under the capable preceptorship of 
Judges Crawford and Higbee, of Idaho, and 
Hon. Hosea Stout, of Salt Lake City, attain- 
ing a thorough knowledge of the technicalities 
and authorities appertaining to his profession, 
and being admitted to practice at the bar of the 
territory in 1870, immediately locating for 
practice in Paris, Oxford and Montpelier, 
Idaho, where he soon attained a large and rep- 
resentative clientage, and is still in practice, 
manifesting himself forcefulfy and influentially. 
Possessing strong legal abilities and knowl- 
edge of law, with readiness and tact in its ap- 
plication, in 1898 he was placed in nomination 
by the Democratic party, with whose principles 
and policies he is steadfastly allied, for the im- 
portant office of district judge of the Fifth ju- 
dicial district of Idaho, comprising the six 
southeastern counties of the state, at the subse- 
quent election being chosen by a very compli- 
mentary majority, and thereafter proving by 
his administration that the choice of the voters 
was an eminently wise one. In 1892 he was 
again the standard bearer of his party for the 
same office, but shared in the disastrous defeat 
of the whole ticket at the polls. In nearly 
every office of importance in the county, and 
as a member of the territorial Legislature for 
two terms and for one term in the state Legis- 
lature, and in 1896 and 1897 holding the dig- 
nified and exalted station of state senator, 
Judge Rich has shown such a rare combination 
of qualities as to attract the attention of the 
people of the entire state, possessing signally 



136 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the wisdom, the honor and the personal mag- 
netism which even' emergency of every official 
station has required. 

In the realm of politics he has made so deep 
an impression on the thoughtful of all political 
parties, in the performance of all of his duties 
manifesting such superior legislative ability, 
that it will be strange if other and still higher 
honors are not conferred upon him, thus se- 
curing for the people a very conservative and 
eminently progressive administration of any 
office to which he may be called. In the devel- 
opment of his town and of the county he has 
ever been a prominent factor, and, incidentally 
we will mention that he is the proprietor of the 
magnificent summer resort of Bear Lake, fif- 
teen miles south of Mbntpelier, known as 
Rich's Hot Springs, and here he maintains his 
summer residence. Fraternally he is a prom- 
inent member of the lodge of Benevolent Or- 
der of Elks, meeting in the city of Pocatello. 

Judge Rich married, on January 14, 1869, 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Miss Anna E. 
Hunter, also a native of Nauvoo, and a daugh- 
ter of Bishop Edward and Ann (Stanley) 
Hunter, her father being a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and coming to Utah with his family on 
the first migration of the Mormon emigrants 
in 1847, being also a noted and distinguished 
individual in the earlv organization of the 
church. This marriage union has proved most 
felicitous, and from it have resulted nine chil- 
dren, of whom the following are now living : 
Edward C. Susanna, Sarah J., now Mrs. 
Chauncey W. Stewert, of Pocatello, Idaho; 
Libby H., Joseph C, Jr., and Stanley H- 

Judge Rich, now sixty-two years of age, 
makes his home at his noted Hot Springs on 
the shores of Bear Lake, where he says his 
latch-string hangs on the outside and nothing 
pleases him better than a call from old friends 
and an awakening of old-time topics and ex- 
periences. 



JAMES I'.CKERSELL. 

One of the most active, energetic and 
prominent of the older type of pioneer set- 
tlers of Fremont county. Idaho, one who has 
probably done more than most of the settlers 
of the Upper Snake River Valley to advance its 
prosperity, and to assist in the building up of 
its varied departments of industrial activity 
through the liberal investment of his means 
and his untiring personal endeavors during 
all the years of the early pioneer era, James 
Eckersell, who is now passing the twilight of 
a more than ordinary active life at Rexburg. 
quietly resting from the well-considered en- 
deavors which have brought him a sufficient 
competency of financial resources to render 
the closing years of his life free from care and 
anxiety, has had a diversified, and, at times, 
a pathetic experience all along life's pathway. 

He was born in Manchester. England, on 
August 5, 1839, as a son of Adam and Anna 
(Burrows) Eckersell, his father being a ship 
carpenter until he became a member of a 
Mormon church, and in [843 he emigrated 
from England with his family, going at once 
to Nauvoo, 111., where he purchased 160 acres 
of land and engaged in the dual vocations of 
farming and carpentry, at which he was dil- 
igently occupied when came the tragical 
events preceding the murder of Joseph Smith, 
and the subsequent abandonment of the city 
and their property by the persecuted Mor- 
mons. Mr. Eckersell, like the others, fled 
from the unbearable situation with the loss of 
all of his property, and the family was residenl 
in Iowa for two years. Thereafter they went 
to Missouri, where thev resided until the death 
of the mother in 1847, the father also dying 
on a Mississippi steamer in 1850. at the early 
age of thirty-five years, the mother having 
burial at St. Louis and the father at Montreal. 
Missouri. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



137 



Thus early becoming an orphan in the 
midst of the most malignant religious perse- 
cution this country has ever witnessed and 
thrown entirely upon his own resources in 
the grievously unsettled conditions of life aris- 
ing therefrom, at a time when most lads of 
his years were enjoying the unalloyed delights 
of a kind mother's parental care, life did not 
present a holiday aspect to the orphaned lad, 
but with a stout heart and a nerve that falt- 
ered not, James Eckersell joined one of the 
trains of the Mormon emigrants en route west- 
ward, and at the age of eleven years found 
himself in Willow Valley, Utah, where he re- 
mained in the service of Joseph Woodward 
until 1856, when, at the age of seventeen 
years, he commenced working for himself at 
blacksmthing and farming, in 1857 going to 
the Cache Valley as one of its early pioneers. 
In 1858 he was employed in Rush Valley by 
Daniel Spencer, in 1859 returned to Cache 
Valley and to Willow Valley in i860, while 
during this latter year he was a minute-man 
at Wellsville in service against the Indians, 
continuing actively in this duty for two years, 
and in this service he rode a horse to death 
while pursuing a party of the hostile savages. 
In 1861 he formed a matrimonial alliance 
with Miss Henrietta McPhail under somewhat 
romantic circumstances. She had crossed the 
plains in 1856 with a handcart brigade, being 
then sixteen years old. In i860 they met at 
Wellsville and in conversation it was ascer- 
tained that neither had a living father, mother, 
a brother or a sister, and on account of their 
similar and lonely lots they decided to unite 
their fortunes for life. 

From his marriage until 1883 Mr. Ecker- 
sell conducted prosperous farming operatiors 
in the Cache Valley, from 1869 being also 
connected with freighting until the railroad 
was completed and put a stop to the business. 
In 1882 he came to Menan, Fremont countv. 



and built a cabin, and in 1883 came to Rex- 
burg, located 160 acres of land and engaged 
in raising cattle in connection with the devel- 
opment of his landed estate, also having teams 
engaged in freighting from 1885 until 1890, 
everything working harmoniously and to his 
financial advancement. He was financially 
concerned in the building of the early and 
later irrigation canals, was one of the commit- 
tee on the organization of the Rexburg Irri- 
gation Canal Co., and "took out" a private 
ditch for his own use. After sixteen 
years of devotion to successful business in- 
terests, and labors in public matters of local 
interest and improvements, in 1899, having 
attained a position of financial independence 
as a result of his judicious industry and wise 
investments, Mr. Eckersell sold all of his va- 
ried possessions except the house and lot where 
he now maintains his home and now is, with 
his capable and devoted wife, at leisure to look 
about him and see the wonderful strides in 
progress which the Snake River Valley has 
made through the discriminating efforts of 
himself and the other members of the pioneer 
settlers and their followers. 

A Republican in politics, he has never as- 
pired to political place or honors, but in the 
discharge of his duty as a consistent member 
of the Mormon church Mr. Eckersell has 
performed many valuable services and held 
responsible offices, serving with acceptation 
on numerous home missions, in one of which 
he held and conducted the first religious meet- 
ing ever held in Lyman, holding also, to the 
manifest benefit of the interests of the church, 
the offices of teacher, elder and member of the 
Seventies. 

The following children are the fruits of the 
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Eckersell, all of 
whom, like their honored parents, are stand- 
ing in a high position in the public esteem and 
confidence : Tames M. ; Elizabeth married 



138 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Evan Lewis ; Sarah married Thos. T. Dar- 
ky; Henrietta died in 187 1, aged two years 
and nine months; Archie; Lorena married 
Henry Flamer; John; Adam; William died 
in 1 89 1, aged two years; Rachel became the 
wife of Arthur Menson. 

THOMAS H. ELLIS. 

Although not an old man as measured by 
the flight of years, yet the experiences of an un- 
usually crowded life, in which he has known 
much of the perils and hardships of a frontier 
existence, being a pioneer of the section of the 
country where it was the extreme frontier and 
borderland of civilization. Thomas H. Ellis, 
now a popular resident of Fremont county, 
Idaho, where he is maintaining his home at La 
Belle, is one who has battled courageously 
among the rude conditions of the undeveloped 
West from early boyhood, although his birth 
took place in Waldron, Sussex Parish, Eng- 
land, on February 1, 1852, being the son erf 
John E. and Hannah (Barber) Ellis, who 
joined a Mormon company coming to Utah in 
1866. The father established the family 
home at Salt Lake City, the mother succumb- 
ing to the tremendous hardships experienced 
on the journey "the plains across," dying at 
Green River, Wyo., and she lies buried by 
the side of the well-known emigrant trail. The 
father, who was a skillful shoemaker, was long 
spared, attaining the patriarchal age of eighty- 
three years, dying at Wellington, L T tah, in 
1898. 

Through no fault of his, the fateful ex- 
igencies of life threw Mr. Ellis of this bio- 
graphical narration very early out into the 
world to care for himself, his first individual 
employment being work for six months for his 
board and clothes, thereafter being emploved 
in the pioneer brewery of Utah for eighteen 
months. Thence he went to Round Vallev, but, 



as the Indians of that vicinity were hostile and 
troublesome, he returned to Salt Lake and for 
two years was engaged in freighting opera- 
tions across the plains. During this time, in 
[871, he first visited the Upper Snake River 
Valley, when the trading post and distributing 
point of Eagle Rock was the center of civiliza- 
tion, making three trips with ox teams from 
Montpelier thither, then residing at Skull \ al- 
ley for the same length of time, thereafter be- 
coming identified with the Hooper Ranch out- 
fit, shortly afterwards removing to Mill Creek. 
There he married, in 1875. with Miss Alvina 
Scott, a daughter of John and Elizabeth 
( Menary) Scott, and resided for over seven 
happy years when the youthful wife was sum- 
moned from earth, leaving four children : 
Royal, born on January 29, 1876; Alvina E., 
born on June 29, 1878 ; John Edward, born on 
Marph 28, 188 1, and Louie, born on March 
30, 1883. 

It was in the fall of 18S6 that Mr. Ellis de- 
termined to cast in his lot with the hardy 
pioneer band which had set itself to work upon 
the sage plains of what is now Fremont county, 
and like the others, to develop a home from the 
wilderness, taking up a claim of 160 acres near 
La Belle, where he has since resided, working 
energetically and perseveringly in transform- 
ing the forbidden and unproductive natural 
condition to one of fruitfulness and verdure, 
assisting in building the La Belle canal and 
later making a canal to the Great Feeder that 
his estate might be well watered, and continu- 
ing in the twin branches of husbandry which 
are the staple employments of the valley, diver- 
sified farming and stockraising, and also being 
a stockholder in the Great Feeder canal, lie 
has ever been a worker and never a drone in 
the public hive of industry, standing well 
among the people as a man of worth and integ- 
rity and enjoying many friends. In the Mor- 
mon church he has been a most efficient la- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



139 



borer, being a teacher for three years and the 
second counsellor of the "Mutuals," also being 
a" member of the relief society, receiving the 
appointment of teacher, but on account of ill- 
ness he could not serve in this capacity. 

On October 30, 1884, was celebrated his 
marriage with Miss Jane (Robertson) Duncan, 
born at Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 12, 
1867, a daughter of Peter and Ann (McNeil) 
Duncan, who came in the fullness of their re- 
ligious zeal from their native Highlands of 
Scotland to Utah in an early day and settled 
permanently in Summit county, where they 
still reside. The fruits of this marriage are six 
children: Elnora Ann, born May 15, 1887; 
William Henry, born August 5, 1889; Henry 
Owen, born December 5, 1891 ; James Albert, 
born July 17, 1894; Peter Leslie, born October 
11, 1896; Jennie May, born May 13, 1899. 

EDMUND ELLSWORTH. 

Edmund Ellsworth, of Lewisville, Fremont 
county, Idaho, eldest son of Edmund and 
Elizabeth (Young) Ellsworth, was born at 
Nauvoo, 111., on October 7, 1843, an d as a 
child, youth and young man shared in the 
thrilling life of his parents, with its strange ad- 
ventures and vicissitudes, its touches of trag- 
edy and pathos, attaining manhood with an 
education secured by observation and practical 
connection with actual life and. business, mak- 
ing it of immensely greater value than the 
learning of schools in the frontier life of the 
West, where the days of his life so far have 
been spent. His father was the major of the 
Nauvoo Legion for many years, and was suc- 
ceeded in the office by the subject of this sketch, 
who held the rank for two years. In 1876 he 
was sent by the church into Arizona to "open 
up" a settlement on the Muddy River, the con- 
ference calling on 500 couples to settle there as- 
a nucleus of a large community, but climatic 



and other conditions were so intolerable that 
after an existence of one year the settlement 
was abandoned, Mr. Ellsworth then returning 
to the Weber River country of Utah, where he 
continued his home until 1884, when he came 
to Lewisville, Idaho, and located on the land 
where he still retains his residence. 

From the first his guiding and fostering 
hand has been recognized in the things pertain- 
ing to the progress of the people. He ran the 
first plow, a wooden one, in turning the first 
furrow in the making of the Parks and Lewis- 
ville Irrigation Canal, the pioneer one of the 
Upper Valley of the Snake River, and was a 
director of the company; was the principal 
owner and stockholder of the Burgess Canal, 
and broke the ground in the construction of the 
Bird Feeder. He has held with conceded abil- 
ity the office of probate judge of Fremont 
county and by appointment filled the unex- 
pired term of Charles French as school com- 
missioner from June, 1897, to January, 1898. 

At Salt Lake City, on November 5, 1867, 
Mrs. Ellsworth was joined in wedlock with 
Miss Ellen Blair, daughter of Seth M. Blair 
and Cornelia J. (Espey) Blair, natives of 
Tennessee, her father being a member of the 
distinguished Southern family of that name. 
A lawyer by profession, he established on Au- 
gust 27, 1859, The Mountaineer, the third 
newspaper of Salt Lake City, which he did not 
long conduct, removing to Logan, Utah, where 
the family home remained until his death, on 
March 11, 1875, aged fifty-eight years. Mr. 
and Mrs. Ellsworth deservedly rank high in 
the intellectual, social and other circles, not 
only of the county and state, but of Utah, hun- 
dreds of their loyal friends being scattered 
through all of the land. 

To them have come through their mar- 
riage a family of children who are doing credit 
to their parentage and ancestry, and we affix 
a brief record of their names, etc. : Edmund, 



i-+o 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



eldest grandchild of President Brigham 
Young, born August 6, 1868; Seth M., born 
August 30. 1870; Frank B.. born October 28, 
1872; Clara, born October 31, 1874; John W., 
born October 31, 1878, accidentally killed 
while hunting, on January 14. 1892; Eliza- 
beth T.. born July 6, 1880, died March 10, 
1882; Alonzo S., born September 16, 1883, 
died February 6, 1885 ; Preston B., born May 
6, 1887. The children have been given fine 
educational advantages, the boys attending the 
Brigham Young College at Logan. Utah. 
Frank was elected a member of the Idaho Leg- 
islature in 1898, serving one term. 

BRIGHAM H. ELLSWORTH. 

One of the sterling, clear-headed and vig- 
orous citizens of Fremont county, Idaho, 
where he has maintained his residence since 
coming as an early pioneer in 1882, Brigham 
H. Ellsworth has demonstrated all of the 
qualities of a man well fitted to successfully 
overcome the hard and onerous conditions 
nature almost imvariablv submits to the in- 
dividual who touches the inner regions of 
her virgin solitudes. He was born o.i No- 
vember 23. 1850, in Salt Lake City. Utah, of 
highly distinguished parents, Edmund and 
Elizabeth (Young) Ellsworth, his father stand- 
ing high in the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints and bis mother being the 
eldest daughter of Brigham Young. For the 
history of his parents and ancestry we refer 
the reader to the extended sketch published 
on other pages of this work. 

Always a person of intense activity, Mr. 
Ellsworth became his own master at the age 
of nineteen years and was connected with the 
operation of a sawmill for three vears. then 
commenced a long and varied experience in 
railroad life on the Oregon Short Line Rail- 
road, working in the shops as a machinist, 



and later beginning at the lower end of the 
ladder as a wiper of engines and being ad- 
vanced by steady and regular steps until he 
became a competent locomotive engineer, 
after the preliminary service of firing had 
been his duty for four years, and he held the 
cab and pulled the throttle for three years as 
an engineer, his whole term as a railroad man 
covering a period of ten years. 

The first wave of emigration from the 
older states, particularly Utah, was rushing 
into the upper valley of the Snake River in 
1882, when Air. Ellsworth came to the new- 
lands at Lewisville and used his right of 
homestead on 160 acres, on the northwest 
corner of the townsite. and he at once became 
heartily absorbed in the abundant and neces- 
sary labors of the new existence, putting up 
hay and constructing buildings on his land, 
and the next spring he commenced the by- 
no-means easy task of clearing the land of 
sagebrush, with swarms of mosquitoes hov- 
ering like clouds over all the country. It 
was truly a virgin land, the whole wide valley 
stretching out unbroken by any previous 
mark of man's occupation, deer and bear, rab- 
bits and coyotes being the more prominent in- 
habitants. Mr. Ellsworth aided in the con- 
struction of all of the irrigating canals of the 
section of his home, building three ditches be- 
fore he secured one whose operations was 
satisfactory, and he is a stockholder in the 
Parks and Lewisville Canal Co. and also in 
that of the Great Feeder. 

For five years he labored untiringly in the 
irrigating and improving of his property and 
then became the pioneer blacksmith of Lewis- 
ville, in 1890 opening the first blacksmithing 
shop of all the region round about. This la- 
borious but eminently useful vocation he con- 
ducted for ten years, then, in 1900. he changed 
his activities to merchandising, which, after 
occupying his time for two years, was 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



141 



changed to carpentry, which he still carries 
on, but his mechanical ability and skill are 
such that he can command full wages at 
nearly every trade. He has ever been in 
active touch with public affairs and politics, 
and in 1887 was appointed a justice of the 
peace, while in 1898 he was nominated and 
elected, as a Democrat, to the same office, 
which he capably filled for two years' time. 
He was ordained as an elder in the Mormon 
church when nineteen years of age and in 
1887 was consecrated as one of the Seventies, 
an office he is now filling with faithfulness and 
capability. 

On September 27, 1879, at Salt Lake City, 
Mr. Ellsworth wedded Miss Helen Gibson, 
born at Black Fork, Wyo., on September 10, 
1848, a daughter of Henry E. and Eliza 
(Gibbs) Gibson, natives of New York, who 
came to Utah in 1843, the second year of the 
migration thither, settling first at Willard, 
next at Richmond, and, later still, at Syra- 
cuse, Utah, where the father, who has ever 
been a miner and a sawmill operator, now re- 
sides, the mother having died at Ogden, Utah, 
on July 30, 1876. 

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth 
are: Alice E., Brigham H., deceased, Charles 
Elliott, John Willard, Joseph Owen, deceased, 
Mariam Valate, Claude William, Curtice Mel- 
notte, Crystal Vere and Sarah Eliza, deceased. 

CHARLES ENGLIS. 

Among the active, industrious and ener- 
getic sons of Idaho, where his home is pleas- 
antly located within four miles of the postoffice 
of Irwin in the fertile Swan Valley, Charles 
Englis must surely be reckoned among those 
who by their personal endeavors and efficient 
services are ably performing their part in in- 
troducing civilization into this section of the 
Rocky Mountains, being one of the promising 



stockmen of Bingham county, having made his 
residence at his present location since 1888, and 
being a genial companion, a loyal friend, a cit- 
izen of good repute and a public official of dis-- 
tinctive merit. 

Mr. Englis was born on July 2, 1871, at 
Pioche, Nevada, the son of Ambrose and 
Louisa (Kirkman) Englis. His father, who 
was born in New York, was a son of Ezra 
Englis and a bold, adventurous individual of 
strong mind and great force of character, leav- 
ing his native state of New York and crossing 
the continent to the California coast in 1859. 
There, in Nevada and Montana, he industri- 
ously conducted blacksmithing for many years 
and until he removed to Swan Valley in 1888 
where he took up land and engaged in stock- 
raising, and there his death occurred in 1893, 
at the age of fifty-six years and nine months. 
A sturdy and uncompromising Democrat of the 
Jefferson and Jackson type, he was elected 
twice to the Legislature of Nevada, serving 
with ability in that body and represented his 
district in the lower house of the Idaho state 
Legislature in 1864. He was made a Freema- 
son at Gold Hill, Nevada, where he ever re- 
tained his membership. The mother of our 
subject was born in Missouri and after the 
death of his father she formed a matrimonial 
alliance with Mr. Harry Taylor, and is now re- 
siding with him in Swan Valley. 

Charles Englis was the eldest of his father's 
children and most loyally devoted himself to the 
duties appertaining to his father's business op- 
erations, at the age of eleven years accompany- 
ing his parents to Butte, Mont., later com- 
ing with them to Swan Valley where he la- 
bored in connection with his father in the es- 
tablishment and care of their cattle operations 
until the death of the father, thereafter contin- 
uing in the management of the joint interests 
of his mother and himself, being thus employed 
until 1902, when he engaged in the same busi- 



142 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



ness entirely on his own account. Inheriting 
Democratic inclination, Mr. Englis is an active 
and earnest supporter of the Democratic party 
in its successive campaigns and at the polls, 
and as the candidate of that party was elected 
justice of the peace at Irwin by a very compli- 
mentary vote. Fraternally he is a member of 
the Woodmen of the World. 

On September 5. 1897, Mr. Englis and 
Miss Alice Bithell, a native of Richmond, Utah, 
were united in marriage. She was the daugh- 
ter of Thomas Bithell, her parents being natives 
of Wales, and both are now deceased and lie 
buried at Richmond. Four children gracefully 
round out the family circle of Mr. Englis, Car- 
rie, Annie, Winifred and Charles R. The fam- 
ily stands in a high position in their circle of ac- 
quaintance and the home is a center of a liberal 
and cordial hospitality. 

JOHN E. DALLEY. 

John E. Dalley, of Whitney, for many years 
a highly esteemed and successful school-teacher 
in Utah and Idaho, an active and efficient 
worker in his church since he was sixteen years 
old, and now a prosperous and enterprising 
stockman and farmer, was born at Pleasant 
Grove, Utah, on November 12. 1852. His par- 
ents. James and Emma (Wright) Dalley, were 
natives of England and became converts to the 
Mormon faith in that country. They came to 
America in 1849, he with his mother and she 
with her parents, and passed their first winter 
in this country near Council Bluffs, Iowa, at 
Winter Quarters, so called from the fact that 
the Mormons had their winter quarters for a 
number of years, and here the parents became 
acquainted and were married. 

They remained at Council Bluffs until the 
spring of 1852, then crossed the plains to Utah 
and settled at Pleasant Grove, in Utah county, 
where thev remained a year. In the fall of 



1853 they moved to Iron county, in the same 
state, and located on land near Cedar City and 
engaged in farming. In 1860 lie homesteaded 
land near Summit in that county, and since 
then he has there made his home. His wife 
died on October 20. 1875. and was buried at 
Summit. 

Their son, John E. Dalley. of this review, 
was educated partly in the public schools, aft- 
erward attending the high schools at Draper 
and Logan and later the University of Utah, 
at Salt Lake City. After leaving the last 
named institution he taught school at Parowan 
from 1876 to 1884, being county superintend- 
ent of public instruction from 1877 to 188 1 in 
Iron county, teaching at the same time. From 
1884 to 1889 he taught successively, being also 
engaged in the sheep business at Pleasant 
Grove. In 1889 and 1890 he attended the 
Brigham Young Academy at Provo. complet- 
ing the normal course of instruction. After 
that he again taught school at Pleasant Grove 
until 1893, when he came to Preston, to take 
charge of the Oneida Stake Academy, which 
he conducted as principal for three years and in 
which he was afterward department instructor 
for two years. In November, 1898, he was 
elected superintendent of schools of Oneida 
county, and was re-elected in 1900, serving two 
terms. In 1902 his brother. Albert C. Dalley. 
was elected on the Republican ticket to this of- 
fice and he, although a Democrat, is serving as 
deputy superintendent. 

In 1895 Mr Dalley bought the ranch on 
which he lives and which has since then been 
his home, and, after building the commodious 
and attractive dwelling and other buildings 
which adorn it, he moved his family there, and 
here he has passed the subsequent years of his 
life busily engaged in farming and in raising 
stock. He has always been an ardent and ac- 
tive Democrat in politics, taking a more than 
usual interest in party affairs since making his 



Mi 




JOHN E. D ALLEY. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



H5 



home in Oneida count}'. From the time when 
he was sixteen years of age, he has been zeal- 
ous and industrious in the service of his church, 
serving- as a high counsellor of Parowan stake 
in Utah from 1877 to 1879, and as the bishop 
of Parowan ward from 1879 to 1883, then be- 
ing the first counsellor to the president until 
1890. In this state he has been the high coun- 
sellor of Oneida stake since 1893. 

On October 4, 1875, at Salt Lake City, Mr. 
Dalley was joined in marriage with Miss Lu- 
rena E. Fitzgerald, a native of Utah, daughter 
of Perry and Agnes (Wadsworth) Fitzgerald, 
the father receiving his birth in Pennsylvania 
and the mother hers in England. The father 
came to Utah in 1847 and the mother in 1850, 
and they were married at Salt Lake City, and 
then they made their home at Draper, where 
the father died on October 4, 1889, and the 
mother on March 23, 1902. Eight children 
have been born unto the Dalley household, E. 
Agnes (Mrs. Cutler), John E. (died in in- 
fancy), Lula E. (Mrs. Winward), Wealthy V. 
(Mrs. Hull), Harriet F., Abram F., Milton F. 
and Lurena E. 

EDMUND and ELIZABETH (YOUNG) 
ELLSWORTH. 

The Ellsworth family is a prominent one 
in Fremont county, Idaho, and it is but 
fitting that in this memorial volume a suit- 
able record should be made of the honored 
people whose names head this review. Both 
descended from and are members of families 
notable in American history, a typical ex- 
ample on one side being the gallant" Col. 
Elmer E. Ellsworth, the first martyr to the 
Union cause in the great Civil war, who was 
a cousin of Edmund Ellsworth, and Elizabeth 
(Young) Ellsworth, she being the daughter of 
the celebrated Brigham Young, the great leader 
of the Church of Latter Day Samts. 



Edmund Ellsworth was a descendant of 
an ancient English family, his first American 
ancestor emigrating" from the old country in 
the Colonial days of New England, from 
whence descendants migrated to the Hudson 
and Mohawk Valleys of New York, later to- 
cating in western New York. Edmund Ells- 
worth himself was born in New York and 
after attaining mature years was an early 
convert to the Mormon faith, to which he gave 
all of the powers of a strong, well educated 
and intense mentality, becoming a resident of 
Nauvoo, 111., engaging in the lumber trade 
and being honored by the friendship of the 
Mormon leaders. Here he met, and on July 
10, 1842, married with Elizabeth Young, the 
eldest daughter of Brigham Young. 

Bancroft, in his "History of Utah," page 
194, says "Brigham Young was born at 
Whittingham, Windsor county," Vt, on 
June 1, 1801. His father, John, a Massachu- 
setts farmer, served as a private soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. and his grandfather as 
a surgeon in the French and Indian war." 
His death occurred at Salt Lake City, August 
29, 1877. Brigham Young is considered by 
most historians to be the greatest leader of 
the Mormon church, and his wonderful and 
masterful settlement of Utah, and his success- 
ful carrying out of the exodus from Nauvoo 
to the Salt Lake country stamp him as one of 
the greatest leaders of men in the world's his- 
tory. He possessed, according to Bancroft, 
"the combination of qualities which Ave find 
primarily present in all great men, in all lead- 
ers of men — intellectual force, mental superi- 
ority, united with personal mag-etism, and 
phvsique enough to give weight to will and 
opinion ; for Brigham was assuredly a great 
man, if by greatness we mean one who is su- 
perior to others in strength and skill, moral, 
intellectual, or physical. The secret of this 
man's power, a power that within a few years 



146 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



made itself felt throughout the world, was 
this : He was a sincere man, or if an impostor, 
he was one who first imposed upon himself." 
Such is the ancestry of the Ellsworths of Fre- 
mont count}', Idaho. 

After residing three years in Nauvoo the 
troublous times inaugurated the westward 
movement of the whole church, and with its 
preliminary steps Mr. Ellsworth was actively 
connected, aiding in the preparations, giving 
counsel on practical points, and he was one of 
the members of the pioneer company which 
in 1847 took possessio/i o c the Salt Lake 
country for the Mormon church. The his- 
tory of this remarkable journey has been so 
often written that it is unnecessary to re- 
capitulate it here, but the names of those who 
accomplished it deserve to be engraved on 
monuments of granite for a perpetual me- 
morial of their bravery and faith. 

Mr. Ellsworth resided in the Salt Lake 
country about twenty years, for twelve years 
conducting a sawmill for Brigham Young, 
then engaging in the sawmill business for 
himself at Mill Creek Canyon, nine miles 
southeast of Salt Lake City, for nine years. 
On one of the first journeys across the plains 
he stopped at Fort Bridger, returned to the 
Platte River, where to facilitate the crossing 
of the stream he built a ferry which he main- 
tained for some years, guiding during that 
time six trains across the plains to Utah and 
in 1856 he led the first hand-cart company to 
Salt Lake. 

From Salt Lake he removed to West 
Weber River, took up and purchased 203 
acres of land, engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, also filled large contracts for ties 
with the Union Pacific Railroad, furnishing 
100,000 for its construction work, and took 
and executed an important grading contract 
through Echo Canyon. After fifteen years of 
life on the Weber he moved to Show Low 



Creek. Arizona, where, until his death on 
Christmas day, 1896, at seventy-nine years of 
age. he and his sons carried on agriculture, 
gardening and graperaising on the home 
estate of 500 acres. His influence was potent 
in church circles. 

Mrs. Ellsworth, in 1886, came to Lewis- 
ville, Idaho, and there resided until her death 
on February 2, 1903. She was born on Sep- 
tember 26, 1825, at Mendon, X. Y.. where 
her mother died in 1833, at the age of twenty- 
eight years. Her education was acquired 
under the supervision of her distinguished 
father, and was the best attainable under the 
migratory life of the early days of his con- 
nection with the church. She possessed many 
of the strong traits of her father's character, 
having also a soft and delicate womanliness 
that made and retained many friends. She 
was peculiarly strong in her domestic nature, 
influencing her children through her winning 
magnetism and loving devotion into right 
paths of thinking and living. A nob'e and 
heroic woman, her influence will live for many 
generations. Her children are Charlotte, 
born in 1843 at Nauvoo. 111., died at ten years 
of age ; Edmund, see sketch on other pages 
of this work ; Rowena died at thirty-four 
years of age; Brigham H., see sketch else- 
where in this volume; Alice, deceased; Luna 
married with Bishop Jardine ; John W. died 
at Salt Lake City in 1902; Minnie, now Mrs. 
Charles Smith, of San Francisco. Calif. 

JOSEPH EMPEY. 

Seminaries, colleges and universities 
may do much for a man in preparing him for 
the battle of life, but far better is the practical 
experience which enables a man to become 
thoroughly possessed of the methods of con- 
ducting to success any of the departments of 
practical business life. In this respect, Joseph 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



H7 



Empey, now one of the leading sheep men of 
Bingham county, Idaho, has been especially fa- 
vored, as all of his life from childhood has been 
connected with the departments of agricultural 
operations which contain the secrets of the suc- 
cessful developments of this section of the state. 
He was born in Utah on November 26, i860, a 
son of Shadrach and Annie (Allen) Empey, 
for further particulars of whom and their an- 
cestry we refer the reader to the sketch of Eph- 
raim S. Empey which appears on other pages 
of this volume. 

Joseph Empey was reared and thoroughly 
educated in the healthful atmosphere of a re- 
ligious home, in full touch with the elevating 
influences which give stability and integrity 
to a people. At the early age of fifteen he was 
apprenticed to a blacksmith with whom he 
served a diligent apprenticeship of three years, 
thereafter working zealously at his trade as a 
master workman. In May, 1883, he came to 
Amnion in Bingham count)', located the land 
on which he now resides, and engaged in its 
development, also following his trade in con- 
nection with its improvement for a time. He 
was prospered in all of his endeavors and devel- 
oped a beautiful home, becoming a leading op- 
erator in the sheep industry, of which he is now 
running 2,000 head. In 1895 his religious de- 
votion induced him to become a missionary of 
his church in the Northern states, in which he 
was eng-aged for a term of two years, and he is 
now the honored president of the 106th quo-rum 
of the church. He has been successful in his 
ventures and is a man of integrity and force of 
character, continuous industry and indomit- 
able will, yet having withal a generous and 
companionable disposition. In 1900 he was the 
nominee of the Republican party for member 
of the Legislature. A progressive and enter- 
prising citizen, an active and influential force 
in political, temporal and religious work, an in- 
spiration to his social circle, a hospitable and 



entertaining host, Bingham county has reason 
to be proud of his citizenship. 

The marriage of Mr. Empey with Miss 
Christie Lewis, a native of Wales, occurred 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 28, 1887. 
She was born on Christmas day, i860, a daugh- 
ter of Philip and Catharine (Evans) Lewis, 
natives respectively of Wales and London, Eng- 
land. Her father was born on July 13, 1823, 
while the birth of her mother occurred on Feb- 
ruary 24, 1822. In 1869 the father became a 
resident of Utah, where he was long identified 
with the Mormon church as a high priest, and 
died on September 19, 1899, aged seventy-six, 
at Lehi. The mother journeyed to Utah in 
1871, and there'her death occurred on October 
6, 1884, being the mother of twelve children. 
The present family of Mr. and Mrs. Empey 
consists of nine children, another, Catharine, 
being deceased. The names of the living 
members of the family are Joseph W., Dellroy, 
Christie E., Ralph A., Lewis S., Francella, 
Philip H., Rebecca J. and Susie L. 

LORENZA J. FIRTH. 

Conspicuously identified with the rapidly in-' 
creasing prosperity of Bingham county, Idaho, 
where he maintains his home and residence in 
the district of Basalt, which is his postoffice ad- 
dress, Lorenza J. Firth, a clear-headed, wide- 
awake and aggressive Englishman, who has 
demonstrated in his life in his adopted country 
many of the valuable characteristics pertaining 
to the English nation, is acknowledged as one 
of the active business factors of the community 
of his home, being a man of ability and holding 
no uncertain place in all public matters of a local 
character, and being especially recognized as a 
representative force in the educational affairs 
of the county, holding a high standing for his 
intelligence and labors in connection with the 
development and uplifting of the people. 



148 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Mr. Firth was born in Wakefield, England, 
on September 27, 1852, a son of William and 
Mary (Burton) Firth, representatives of fam- 
ilies that for generation after generation 'have 
been law-abiding, intelligent and valuable citi- 
zens of that country. His mother dying in 
1859, in 1861 Mr. Firth accompanied his grand- 
mother to the United States as a member of 
her family, she locating first in New York and 
thereafter joining a Mormon caravan traveling 
to Utah, where her residence was made at 
South Weber. The youth and early manhood 
of Mr. Firth were passed amid scenes well cal- 
culated to develop the necessary qualifications 
of success in this section of the West. He 
passed part of the time in Utah, then was in. 
Nevada for a season and was thereafter occu- 
pied with various pursuits in Wyoming previ- 
ous to his coming to Idaho. Of the eight chil- 
dren of his parents, four are now living, Wil- 
liam, Lorenza J., Emily and John B. 

Mr. Firth when he first assumed the respon- 
sibilities of life for himself became connected 
with mining operations, thereafter assuming 
the life of a farmer. In 1885 he came to Idaho, 
and in Bingham county located a homestead to 
which he gave most efficient service in its re- 
clamation from its primeval state of sterility, 
and on which he is now residing profitably en- 
gaged in farming and in conducting stockrais- 
ing operations of scope and importance, being 
considered one of the representative men of the 
county, standing high in the esteem of the com- 
munity. Springing from the best old English 
stock, his qualities are largely characteristic 
of the race, modified, however, by the condi- 
tions of breeziness and independence with 
which he has been brought into contact on the 
plains, mountains and valleys of the Great 
West. 

Mr. Firth possesses a quiet independence, 
a freedom from self-assertion or pretense, a 
contempt for social distinction and a democracy 



of manner, a general frankness and a true man- 
liness which marks not only the native Briton, 
but the best representatives of American life. 
These qualities have invariably commended the 
confidence and respect of the people among 
whom he has lived, while the strength and 
clearness of his mind have caused him to take 
an active part in everything tending to the de- 
velopment of the community, socially, educa- 
tionally or otherwise, and for many years he has 
given most efficient service on the board of 
school trustees of his district. In political af- 
fairs he is a keen, shrewd observer, standing 
fully in accord with the principles and policies 
of the Republican party, while fraternally he is 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. At Ogden, Utah, on August 2. 1873, 
were solemnized the ceremonies uniting Mr. 
Firth and Miss Dorcas Martin in the bonds of 
matrimony. She was a native of Boston and a 
daughter of William and Mary (Maiden) Mar- 
tin, natives of England. Mr. and Mrs. Firth 
have been the parents of twelve children, four 
of whom have died. The living ones are Mary 
A., Emily J-. Alice M., Thomas H., Marion. 
Cora, Bertha and Jessie. 

JAMES C. FISHER. 

One of the representative citizens of 
Bingham county, Idaho, prominent in all 
good works and universally acknowledged as 
a representative citizen of the highest char- 
acter, being one of the "boys in blue" who 
valiantly carried the Union flag in many a 
bloody battlefield of the Civil war. and ever 
active in all public matters of a local char- 
acter, Mr. Fisher well deserves representation 
in any work treating of the prominent or rep- 
resentative men of the state. He was born on 
October 10. 1834, in Jefferson county, N. Y.. 
a son of Milton and Sarah (Tremner) Fisher, 
the father beins - a native of the headwaters 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



149 



of the Delaware River, removing about 18 10 
from that part of the state of New York to 
Jefferson county, where he resided until 1844, 
when his son James C, the resident of Black- 
foot, Idaho, was but ten years of age, making 
his permanent home as a pioneer farmer in 
Dodge county, and maintaining his residence 
there until his death, at the age of fifty-five 
years. He was an original Abolitionist, one 
of the founders of the Free-Soil party of this 
state, a man of public spirit and universally 
esteemed for his ability and high moral char- 
acter. The mother was a native of- the Do- 
minion of Canada, who after a long life of 
activity and usefulness died at the venerable 
age of eighty-two years in Idaho, and her 
remains lie buried at Blackfoot. Of her seven 
children four are now living. 

James C. Fisher passed his early life in 
the conventional manner of farmers' sons of 
that place and period and at his father's death 
assumed the entire charge of the family, de- 
voting himself to the clearing up of the farm 
which had been commenced by his father, at 
which he was industriously engaged at the 
breaking out of the Civil war, when his patri- 
otic spirit responded gallantly to his coun- 
try's call for soldiers. On October 21, 
1861, he enlisted as a private in Company D, 
Sixteenth Wisconsin Infantry, and followed 
the fortunes of that regiment for one year, 
when he was exchanged into the First Min- 
nesota Light Artillery, in which he re-enlisted 
and was in service until the termination of 
the war, participating with these organiza- 
tions in the noteworthy campaigns and bat- 
tles of the Army of the Tennessee, being 
wounded while o^e of the pickets that were 
driven in by the Rebels at the battle of Shiloh. 
proving himself by his re-enlistment and gal- 
lant services a cherished veteran of the 
Union army. After his discharge in 1865 Mr. 
Fisher returned to Wisconsin and the home- 



stead farm and during his residence thereon 
became interested in and prominent in the 
local politics of the county, serving creditably 
and ably on the county board of supervisors, 
of which he had the distinction of being 
chairman. In 1872 he started on his west- 
ward journey, making his first stopping place 
in Seward county. Neb., being there 
engaged in agriculture for a time, thence re- 
moving to Rooks county, Kans., where he 
took up a homestead and conducted agricul- 
tural operations for six years, when the de- 
structive hordes of grasshoppers forced him 
to move to Ellsworth county, eightee i 
months thereafter migrating to Marshall 
county, thence, in 1886, coming to Idaho and 
making his home at Blackfoot, securing a 
homestead of 160 acres on the Snake River 
in an eligible and highly productive section 
of the county. By his diligent industry and 
careful labors he has developed a beautiful 
place of ten acres in the suburbs of Black- 
foot village, which he purchased in 1887, hav- 
ing given special attention to the cultivation 
of fruit, and his orchards now occupy nearly 
all of the ten acres of ground. He has de- 
monstrated among others that the capabilities 
of Idaho as a fruitraising state 'are unequaled 
by any section of the Union. 

A lifelong Republican, Mr. Fisher has 
steadily supported that political party from 
its organization . in 1856, when he cast his 
vote for its first presidential candidate, Gen. 
John C. Fremont. Mr. Fisher holds an 
honored place in the circles of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, and is extensively 
known throughout the state for his activity 
in temperance work and also as being an or- 
ganizer of the Good Templars lodge of 
Blackfoot. 

On April 16, 1868. occurred the marriage 
ceremonies uniting Miss Melvina Moore and 
Mr. Fisher in wedlock. Mrs. Fisher is a 



mo 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



native of Wisconsin, and a daughter of Abram 

and Nancy (Stelts) Moore, natives of Penn- 
sylvania and Baltimore, Md., respectively. 
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have four children : Har- 
vey E., Fred M., Robert E. and Charles Y.. 
and are valued members of the Methodist 
church, as well as sterling and highly prized 
citizens of Bingham count}-. 

HENRY FLAMM. 

Among the countries that have contributed 
generously to the building up of a Christian 
civilization in the new lands of the Great West, 
the German fatherland stands well in the front, 
while in the character of the sons and daugh- 
ters which she has here sent as her representa- 
tives she has been most liberal, they standing 
forth prominently as leaders in all branches of 
human endeavor and activity, and in health, 
courage, ability, industry and obedience to law 
they have had few equals and no superiors in 
the people who have journeyed hitherward 
from the other countries of Europe. 

Henry Flamm, one of the pioneers of Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, and now a prosperous and 
popular merchant of the thriving and progres- 
sive city of Rexburg, is one of the best repre- 
sentatives of the German element of this sec- 
tion of the state in which he holds a broad ac- 
quaintanceship and enjoys a high popularity. 
Mr. Flamm was born in the historic little king- 
dom nf Wurtemberg on November 27, 1837, 
a son of John D. and Elizabeth Barbara 
( Flamm) Flamm, both paternal and maternal 
ancestors dwelling as industrious and well-to- 
do citizens of Wurtemberg for generations, 
many of them being skilled artisans in the vari- 
ous trades carried to such superiority in that 
intelligent land. His father was a weaver of 
fancy patterns and to weaving also the attention 
of his son Henry was given from very early 
life, his labors being interrupted only by the re- 



quired attendance at the gymnasium and other 
educational institutions maintained by the gov- 
ernment in the vicinity of his birthplace. 

Thus life passed, all members of the family 
being diligently occupied with productive la- 
bors until the death of the mother in 1846 left 
only three of her nine children living. The fa- 
ther and the older children struggled on pa- 
tiently and untiringly until 1853, when, im- 
pelled by sufficient influences to overcome their 
love for their native land and the parting with 
friends, they emigrated from their European 
home to cast in their lot with a foreign people, 
whose language even was unknown to them. 
The first home in the United States was lo- 
cated at Erie, Pa., not far from the south shore 
of Lake Erie, later moving to the pleasant town 
of Fairview, Erie county. Pa., where Dame 
Fortune withheld her favors from the new ar- 
rivals, for within the short space of three years, 
in 1856, the father, who had remarried, died at 
the age of sixty-three years, leaving the family 
in very humble circumstances. 

Henry Flamm was the youngest of the chil- 
dren of his father's first marriage, and after 
that parent's death he devoted himself with en- 
ergy to aiding his stepmother in the support 
and the bringing up of the two children of the 
second marriage. To this he gave his time for 
several years, working early and late in the 
woolen mills of western Pennsylvania, then 
he followed silkweaving in New York city for 
a time, thereafter learning the trade of an iron 
molder in Meriden, Conn., continuing to be 
employed there and at South Norwalk for 
nearly five years. Having identified himself 
with the Mormon church through the interpo- 
sition of some of its faithful missionaries, in 
1862 he crossed the continent to Utah, travers- 
ing the weary and dangerous distance across 
the western plains with a Mormon caravan of 
ox teams, being, however, fortunate in escaping 
the attacks of Indians, as trains going before 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



i=ii 



and coming after him were assaulted and ha- 
rassed. 

Mr. Flamm commenced his western life by 
farming on shares for a year in Cottonwood 
Valley, thereafter being engaged in agricultural 
operations near Logan for some years, and here 
his qualifications for successful trade were de- 
veloped, and he was soon employed in a store 
at Logan. Here he continued to abide, becom- 
ing known as a representative citizen of public 
spirit and marked business ability, for the long 
period of nineteen years, being distinctly suc- 
cessful in all of his undertakings. The unde- 
veloped possibilities of southeastern Idaho then 
attracted his attention to so great an extent that 
he removed hither and located on a farm situ- 
ated three miles northwest of Rexburg, devot- 
ing his energies to its development until 1888, 
when with his prosperous farming and cattle- 
raising operations he combined merchandising, 
by estabjishing a general store at Rexburg, and 
to all of these profitable activities he now gives 
his oversight. 

From his settlement Mr. Flamm has been 
prominently identified with every department 
of human progress in Fremont county. Irri- 
gation has been largely promoted through his 
earnest efforts and he holds interests in and 
stands in official relations with several canal 
companies. He has been a pronounced factor 
in the educational and religious life, coming 
here as a counsellor to President Ricks of the 
Fremont stake of the L. D. S., and thereafter 
being appointed the president of the high 
priests' quorum, holding these offices with the 
warm approval of .his church superiors, and he 
is now holding the office of patriarch. Demo- 
cratic in politics and a man whose thoughts and 
actions are harmonious for the benefit of the 
people, it is almost needless to say that Mr. 
Flamm has a large circle of warm friends and 
occupies an honored place in the regards of the 
people. 



On November 28, 1859, in New York city, 
Mr. Flamm was married, the bride being Miss 
Helena Bock, a native of Germany, born in 
1836, who died in Rexburg, Idaho, in 1883, 
leaving these children, Peter, Helena, Mary, 
Eliza, Henry, Eleonore, Daniel and Emma. A 
second marriage was celebrated in 1880, when 
Miss Matilda Painter became his wife. She 
was born at Logan, Utah, the daughter of 
George and Jane (Herbert) Painter, pioneer 
Mormon settlers of Utah. To this second un- 
ion have been born ten children : Jane, George, 
Eliza, deceased, Herbert, Matilda, Alfred, de- 
ceased, Sarah, Hannah, Harold and Edgar. 

CHARLES W. FRYAR. 

In this publication will be found memoirs 
of many who have figured prominently in the 
business, public and social life of this section 
of the state of Idaho, each contributing in bis 
sphere of action to the well-being of the com- 
monwealth and to the advancement of its nor- 
mal and legitimate growth ; such men merit 
definite tributes of respect in a work of this 
nature, and, in connection with other records 
of those who have contributed in a marked 
degree to the material and financial pros- 
perity and industrial activities, of Bear Lake 
county, Charles M. Fryar, the popular mer- 
chant of Soda Springs, is known and honored 
as a sterling citizen. 

He was born in the sunny Southland, on 
March 22, 1871, a son of Isaac and Jennie 
(Tigret) Fryar, natives of Mississippi, ' the 
state of his birth, where his father conducted 
agricultural operations until 18S3. In that 
year the family home was transferred to Soda 
Springs, Idaho, and here they at present re- 
side, holding honored places in the esteem 
of the community which has been their home 
for so many years, and being the parents of 
eleven children, of whom nine are now living. 



152 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Their son, the subject of this review, received 
his early educational discipline in Mississippi 
and at Soda Springs. Idaho, thereafter giv- 
ing diligent attendance to the excellent in- 
struction of the military academy at Ogden, 
Utah, thereafter engaging in general mer- 
chandising business in Soda Springs on his 
own account, inaugurating his operations in 
May, 1895. 

Having a keen eye to the necessities of 
the trade and the demands of the people, and 
paying diligent attention thereto, Mr. Fryar 
has been more than usually prosperous in his 
mercantile operations, from small beginnings 
rapidly increasing his stock and his patron- 
age until, to satisfy the important demands 
of his business, he has been compelled to erect 
a large brick building of two and one-half 
stories and basement, which is entirely de- 
voted to the accommodation of his stock and 
to the necessities of his trade, with the ex- 
ception of a large public hall in the upper 
story, and in this commodious structure is 
displayed one of the choicest stocks of mer- 
chandise to be found in any county, as in his 
operations he carries dry goods, furnishing 
goods, groceries, hardware, wagons, farm 
machinery and implements, and also a variety 
of other goods connected with his line that are 
demanded by his appreciative and intelligent 
patrons. 

Mr. Fryar takes great pains to forward 
any and all matters that his judgment teds 
him are consistent with the progress, develop- 
ment and comfort of the community, being 
active in everything pertaining to increase the 
welfare of the same, being a man whose judg- 
ment is considered of high value in the con- 
sideration of all community efforts and mat- 
ters, wdiile. as a member of the Democratic 
political party, he is loyally arrayed in de- 
fense of its principles, giving active service 
in its campaigns and holding a representative 



place in the councils of the party. Frater- 
nally he takes great interest in his member- 
ship in the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and has served the fra'.ernity well in 
official relations, having "passed the chairs" 
and also being a valued member of the Re- 
bekah lodge. 

At Ogden, Utah, on February 12, 1^97. 
Mr. Fryar w'as united in wedlock with Miss 
Selma Anderson, a native of Sweden and a 
daughter of Anders G. and Hattie (Romlin) 
Anderson, emigrants from the far land of 
Sweden who are now residents of Lund. Ban- 
nock county, Idaho, and valuable members of 
society. Mr. and Mrs. Fryar have one son. 
Charles Leroy. In his business ventures our 
worthy merchant has had great success, main- 
taining the position of a leader in financial 
operations and business undertakings of the 
city, while as a citizen he is public spirited 
and active, contributing largely his share of 
inspiration, time and money for any public 
improvement, being as liberal as he is pros- 
perous. His acquaintanceship is large and he 
is progressive and up to the times, an inspir- 
ing example of what ability, energy, business 
capacity and superior judgment can accom- 
plish when concentrated. 

J. EDGAR SMITH. 

Prominent in connection with public affairs 
in Idaho, and known as a progressive and suc- 
cessful business man and an able representative 
of the bar of the state, among the citizens of 
Bingham county none is more deserving dis- 
tinctive consideration in a volume of this char- 
acter than is Mr. J. Ed. Smith, Esq.. who is 
actively engaged in the practice of law in the 
thriving city of Idaho Falls. The inevitable 
law- of action accords to tireless energy and 
industry a successful career, and in no field of 
human endeavor is there a greater opportunity 




£Z <£^. ^^^ 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



155 



for advancement than in that of law. Mr. 
Smith has met all of the exact requirements of 
his profession and has won and maintains a 
high standing before the bar of his state. 

Further than this he may be characterized 
as one of the pioneers of the county, having 
made his residence there in May, 1882. He 
was born on March 7, 1852, at Chicopee Falls, 
Mass., a son of James H. and Harriet Smith, 
natives of Maine, where his earlier paternal an- 
cestors were also born. From the Pine Tree 
state, in i860, the parents migrated to the cen- 
ter of culture and the metropolis of New Eng- 
land, the beautiful city of Boston, Mass., where 
he was reared and where he obtained his pre- 
liminary literary education. In 1867 the fam- 
ily home was transferred to Omaha, Neb., 
and here, after an examination before the 
courts of the state in 1880, he was formally 
admitted to the practice of law. 

In 188 1, believing that the far West offered 
greater and more varied opportunities for suc- 
cess in professional life than the already over- 
crowded city of Omaha, and shortly after his 
admission to practice, he removed to Butte, 
Mont., but within a year became a resident 
of Idaho and located at Idaho Falls in the prac- 
tice of his profession, in which he has won repu- 
tation for legal knowledge and great business 
sagacity, and stands as one of the leading at- 
torneys of the bar of the state, while his ability 
was so marked that in 1887 he was appointed 
as assistant United States attorney of the state 
of Idaho, under James H. Hawley, filling this 
office of distinctive trust and responsibility 
with such zeal and pronounced results as to 
merit the approbation of his superiors as well 
as of the community, having been also twice a 
candidate for district attorney, in 1886 and 
1888 as a Democrat, against the anti-Mormon 
party, which passed and for some time enforced, 
the "test oaths" law in Idaho. He is also the 
attorney for the Z-C-M-I and other large cor- 



porations east and west. In political relations 
he exercises a marked influence in the ranks of 
the Republican party, while fraternally he is 
a prominent member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, being a representative to the 
grand lodg"e, while he is also a member of the 
Daughters of Rebekah. 

Mr. Smith is a man of marked executive 
capacity and retains a clientele of a distinctively 
representative character, and his interposition 
in any enterprise or undertaking of either pub- 
lic or private character implies that it will be 
carried forward to determined success. 

Twenty-two years of active and continu- 
ous law practice has made Mr. Smith a veteran 
in the ranks of the attorneys of the state, for 
Judge D. W. Standrod, Judge Joseph C. Rich 
and J. Ed. Smith are the oldest legal practi- 
tioners in southeastern Idaho. Judge Rich being 
the senior, Standrod and Smith having com- 
menced practice in the same year, and when 
Malad was the county seat of old Oneida 
county, which then embraced all of Bingham, 
Bannock and Fremont counties in addition to 
its present territory. The Third judicial dis- 
trict then took in Bear Lake, Oneida, Cassia, 
Custer and Lemhi counties, with Judge Mor- 
gan, now of Boise (whose son Ralph now pre- 
sides as judg'e in the First judicial district of 
the state), as its presiding judge. 

Mr. Smith was married at Omaha, Neb., 
on July 28, 1874, with Miss Augusta 
Brosius, a native of Brooklyn, N. Y., and a 
daughter of Daniel and Caroline Brosius. 
Their family consists of four children, Charles 
A., who, born in Omaha, Neb., in 1876, mar- 
ried Matilda Price and is now a resident of 
Idaho Falls; Hattie C. ; J. Edgar, Jr.; Dan- 
iel B. ' 

Of the social circles of the town, the fam- 
ily are prominent members, being extremely 
popular. In his profession Mr. Smith has not . 
only the technical and practical knowledge es- 



i56 



PROGRESSIVE MEX OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



sential to maintaining success but also that 
breadth of view and generous public spirit 
which characterizes the best citizens. 

GEORGE FOSTER. 

While the lessons of adversity are not al- 
ways salutary and sometimes awaken the 
baser passions which are fed by a sense of 
injustice, in the main they develop strength 
and elasticity of filter, beget a healthy and 
fruitful self-reliance, and quicken the re- 
sourceful powers to energetic and productive 
activity. No people in human history have 
demonstrated this fact more clearly or forc- 
ibly than the communicants of the Mormon 
church, whether they be considered in the 
aggregate or in individual cases. And 
among those who have had the destiny of 
disaster and have overcome it by force of 
character and resolute and determined resist- 
ance through persistent effort, George Foster, 
the father of the immediate subject of this 
brief review, is entitled to a high rank and the 
continued respect of mankind. 

He was a native of Ireland who came to 
the United States in 1832 at the age of twenty- 
seven years. While not a machinist by trade 
he was a natural mechanic and he worked at 
that vocation only when other fields of em- 
ployment were closed to him. He sought 
employment in various places, traveling over 
the greater part of the Eastern states and the 
eastern part of Canada, working at ma- 
chinist's work wherever he cared to tarry. In 
1835 he married with Miss Jane McCullock, 
a native of Kentucky. After his marriage he 
lived for a time in Pittsburg, Pa., working at 
his trade, when he. by a flying piece of metal. 
lost the sight of his left eye, and later moving 
to Cincinnati. Ohio, he there followed the same 
tion. It was while living in this c ; tv 
that he and his wife were converted to Mor- 



monism, and soon afterward, in 1843. they 
moved to the central home of the church. 
Nauvoo. 111. Here they remained until 1846 
when they started with the rest of the faithful 
for a new home in the farther West. Thev 
remained at Winter Quarters near Cotvcil 
Bluffs, Iowa, and when the others renewed 
their journey in the spring, Mr. and Mrs. 
Foster tarried in Pottawattamie county, in 
that state, and lived there until 1852. 

They then started with a company across 
the plains for Salt Lake, and on the weari- 
some way Mrs. Foster died, leaving her s r- 
rowing husband with eight small children to 
care for. the youngest being onlv a few 
months old. He arrived at the Mormon 
capital in the fall of 1852. and, after a short 
residence there and on Willow Creek, he 
moved to Provo, where he took up land and 
engaged in farming. In 1858 he marr 
Mis-; Yerena Fisher, a native of Switzerland, 
and they remained at Provo until 1862. when 
they moved to Logan, then only a small vil- 
lage. Here he again took up land and went 
to farming, continuing his agricultural opera- 
tions in that neighborhood until November, 
1874. At that time he removed to the ranch 
now occupied by his son. George, at Whit- 
ney. Idaho, and thus became a veritable pio 
neer in this region for there was then no settle- 
ment north of Franklin and there were but 
two families living near the present Whit- 
ney. 

The ranch on which he settled h three 
and one-half miles southeast of Preston, and 
since he located on it it has been devoted 
to general farming purpose^ and to a stock 
industry which has grown in volume and 
value with the flight of years until it i-; now 
"lie cf the best established and most profit- 
able of its size in this portion of the state. 
The first years of the family's residence in 
this section were very trying ones. The sea- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



157 



sons were dry and the development of the 
country almost nothing. But by persever- 
ance and pluck the family was able to make 
steady progress against hardship and diffi- 
culty, and in time reaped a bountiful reward 
for their labors. The father died on this place 
on June 2, 1S88, and since then the mother 
has made her home with her son. 

George Foster was ten years old when the 
family moved to this place and so he received 
his early education in this neighborhood, 
finishing at Logan, whither he returned for 
the purpose. After his school days he re- 
mained at home working on the farm with 
his father until the death of the latter, when 
he purchased the interests of the other heirs 
and acquired the ownership of the farm. He 
has since then devoted his time and energies 
to its work and to his sheep business, which 
has become both extensive and profitable, and, 
through his industry and attention to busi- 
ness, he has become prosperous a'~d well-to- 
do, by reason of his breadth of view and pub- 
lic spirit in the affairs of the community, ris- 
ing to a position of leadership among the 
people. 

Mr. Foster is also active in church work, 
serving its interests locally in every way he 
can, and going abroad to spread its influence 
when he is called to do* so. He went to Eng- 
land on a mission in 1896, and while in that 
country did effective service to the cause. In 
politics he is an active Republican. His farm 
is one of the beautiful places in the valley, 
having a pleasing variety of scenery and a 
fine array of stately cotton trees. On May 5, 
1892, Mr. Foster married a Miss Ruth Wood- 
ward, a native of Franklin and a daughter 
of William and Rebecca (Wright) Wood- 
ward, the father being a native of England 
and the mother of Scotland. A sketch of 
them appears on another page. Mr, and 
Mrs. Foster have four children, Edna, Wini- 



fred, Georgia R. and Gretchen, all of whom 
are members of the parental household. 

EZRA C. FOSS, Jr. 

Ezra C. Foss, Jr., of Preston, Oneida coun- 
ty, in this state, the manager of Preston Co-op- 
erative Drug Company of the town and the 
senior partner in the firm of Foss Brothers, 
who are engaged in several lines of mercantile 
enterprise in this flourishing and progressive 
community, is a native of Salt Lake City, where 
he was born on June 18, 1872, the son of Ezra 
C. and Emily (Cheney) Foss, the former a na- 
tive of Scarboro. Maine, and the latter of Cen- 
terville, Utah, the father being born on June 
2 3- Z S33. ana - the mother on July 27, 1852. 
The Fosses are of old Colonial stock, the earli- 
est of the name in America having been a val- 
iant soldier through the Revolution under Gen- 
eral Washington, and having shared with the 
great commander the trials and hardships of 
that memorable and momentous struggle, and 
rejoiced with him in its final triumph. His 
name was Zachariah Foss, and after the war he 
settled at Scarboro, Me., which was the birth- 
place and residence of the family for several 
generations. Ezra C. Foss, the father of the 
immediate subject of this review, was the sec- 
ond son of the fourth generation, and after 
completing his education at the public schools 
of his native place learned the trade of book- 
binding, at which he worked' in Maine until 
1850. Then, with his mother, his four sisters 
and his brother Calvin, he came to Utah, ar- 
riving at Salt Lake City in October. One 
brother, Ira, remained in Maine, and his son 
Ira is now conducting a well-known watering 
place and pleasure resort called Chechley, at 
Proutsfoot in that state. Ezra C. Foss, the el- 
der, followed his trade at Salt Lake, binding 
the first book bound in Utah, the "Laws of 
Utah," published in 1853. He also took up 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



land and engaged in farming near Salt Lake, 
remaining there until 1884 when he removed 
to Farmington. There he again took up land 
and has been occupied in farming since that 
time. He has turned his wild land into a fer- 
tile and productive farm and has improved it 
with a fine residence and other good buildings. 
He is recognized as one of the successful and 
progressive farmers of the neighborhood and 
one of the leading and representative men of 
that portion of the state. His marriage oc- 
curred at Farmington on June 19. 1870. and 
the ceremony was performed by Bishop John 
W. Hess. The ancestry of Mr. Foss. the 
younger, on his mother's side is also worthy 
of high regard and embraces leading old Colon- 
ial families who were early settlers in New Eng- 
land. The Cheneys were among the first arriv- 
als in this country and were prominent in the 
early history of their section; and the Bube's 
maternal forbears of the mother came over in 
the Mayflower and lived in Massachusetts for a 
generation or two, then moved to Vermont, 
where the family was domesticated until 185 1. 
At that time her immediate line settled in the 
state of New York, where the succeeding gen- 
erations have made their home. Several mem- 
bers of both families fought in the Revolution, 
and in times of peace their scions have adorned 
every desirable walk of life. Her parents, Na- 
than and Elizabeth (Bube) Cheney, became 
Mormons in the early days of the church and 
joined the settlement of the Saints at Nanvoo. 
111., from whence they came across the plains 
to Utah in 185 1. Eight children formed the 
Foss household of the father's family, Ezra C, 
Jr., Sarah B.. Franklin N, Calvin Z. and Lu- 
ther S.. living, and Amy E.. and Edna and Ida 
(twins), deceased. The oldest son. Ezra C, Jr.. 
received his early education at Salt Lake City, 
removing with the family to Farmington when 
he was thirteen years of age. He also attended 
the public schools of that city and later entered 



the University of Utah there where he finished 
his scholastic training. Desiring to engage in 
the drug business, on leaving the university he 
went into the store of the Ormsby-Martineau 
Drug Co. at Logan and remained in its employ 
four years. During this time he made good 
use of his time, studying his profession dili- 
gently, and in 1896, after passing the required 
examination, received from the state board of 
registration a certificate of qualification as a 
practicing pharmacist. He continued to work 
for this company until 1899, then came to Pres- 
ton. Idaho, to take the position of manager of 
the Co-operative Drug Co. of that town, which 
he is still holding. He is also a stockholder in 
the company and is its ruling spirit in every 
way. In 1901 his brother Franklin came to 
Preston from Butte, where he had been em- 
ployed for four years, and together they bought 
the furniture store and stock formerly owned 
by Joseph Dawes. Franklin took charge of this 
business and has continued to manage it since 
then. In the spring of 1902 they bought a 
clothing and gents' furnishing store from John 
Larsen & Sons, and placed their brother Calvin 
in charge of that. Since then their youngest 
brother, Luther, has joined them and is assist- 
ing in conducting their various enterprises. 
The}- are all bright young men. capable in busi- 
ness, sterling in integrity, elevated in character 
and entertaining in social life, and are rapidly 
rising into prominence and consequence in the 
community. The furniture and the clothing 
establishments are conducted separately but 
are both under the firm name of the F>ss Broth- 
ers, and Ezra C. Jr.. is at the head of each. 
On September 30, 1896. at Logan, Utah. 
Mr. Foss bowed beneath the flowery yoke of 
Eros and was united in marriage with Miss 
Catherine A. Smart, a native of Franklin. 
Idaho, and daughter of Thomas and Albenia 
(Hatch) Smart. Her father was reared in 
Franklin, his father being one of the first set- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT 'AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



159 



tiers of that place, locating there in i860. He 
was prominent and influential in public and 
church affairs, and labored faithfully in both 
until his death in 1902. For a number of years 
after locating in that part of the state he was 
one of the leading fanners and stockgrowers 
of the section, but some time before his death 
he moved to Logan, Utah, and passed the re- 
mainder of his life at that city. Mr. and Mrs. 
Foss have three children, Kerron C. Emma and 
Donna E. 

BUCKLEY MARTIN FULLMER. 

An eloquent writer has justly said that 
success is not always the result of fortunate 
circumstances, but is the outcome of labor 
and business ability, and the one who achieves 
success in any line of industry or commerce, 
especially in a specialized department, must 
be possessed of energy, strong - determination, 
a will that never falters and a persistency 
which is tireless, and, in the circumstances of 
the life of Mr. Buckley M. Fullmer, the 
genial and popular station agent of the Ore- 
gon Short Line Railroad at Rigby, Fremont 
county, Idaho, we .find ample demonstration 
of the truth of the above proposition. Mr. 
Fullmer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 
September 2.7, 1852, a son of Almon L. and 
Sarah A. (Follett) Fullmer, the father a na- 
tive of Luzerne county, Pa., while the mother 
was born in the state of New York. 

Devotion to principle has ever been a 
characteristic of the Fullmer family, and 
when Almon L. Fullmer espoused the cause 
of Mormonism in the early days of the mis- 
sion of Joseph Smith, he did so because he 
believed in its sanctity, and, as a natural re- 
sult, he stood by the side of the prophet in 
all of the distressing troubles at Nauvoo, until 
the tragical end of the great leader but in- 
tensified the strained condition, then being 



of the number which passed on to go- into 
Winter Quarters in 1847 an d i 11 J 848 the 
family was in the van of that almost unending 
number of ox team caravans that followed the 
soon well-defined emigrant trail to the new' 
Land of Zion on the shores of the Great Salt 
Lake, thereafter settling as farmers at Salt 
Lake City until 1878, when the father pur- 
chased a farm in the Cache. Valley and there 
passed the remainder of his years in the quiet 
industrious life of a successful agriculturist, 
honored by the friendship and confidence of 
the people and dying in October, 1890. The 
good mother, who had loyally followed the 
varying fortunes of her husband, is still resid- 
ing, at the age of eighty years, on the Cache 
Valley homestead, being the mother of six 
children, all of whom are now living. 

With filial solicitude Buckley M. Fullmer 
remained a member of the parental home cir- 
cle until he had attained twenty-four years of 
age, but when twenty-two he had started to 
learn telegraphy and was sent as an operator 
to a lonely mining camp at the North Star 
mining district. The conditions there proved 
so distasteful that he relinquished his efforts 
in this line until the spring of 1879, when he 
commenced his long period of activity in rail- 
road work by becoming an operator at Battle 
Creek, fifteen months later being transferred 
to Arimo as the station agent as well as teleg- 
rapher, giving diligent and effective seiwice, 
but resigning at the end of two years, thence 
going into the Logan office of the Utah 
Northern, where he continued for two years, 
then being sent in succession to different 
places, Oxford for two years and to Rich- 
mond, where, after one year's service, he re- 
signed to accept the Logan agency of the 
Pacific Express Co. The salary proving 
inadequate for the labor expected, he closed 
his connection' with the office at the end of 
six months and for another six months was a 



i6o 



PROGRESSII'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



conductor on a street-car line of Salt Lake 
City, thereafter returning to the Oregon 
Short Line Railroad as the relief agent be- 
tween Fossil and Fayette, holding- this posi- 
tion with credit for two years, and then be- 
coming the company's agent at Lorenzo. Six 
months later, on the closing of the Lorenzo 
office, he was transferred to R'igby, and here 
for two years he has displayed great dili- 
gence, courtesy and business capacity, fully 
meeting every obligation devolving on him, 
faithfully performing every trust, by his 
fidelity to principle and genuine manliness se- 
curing the confidence, respect and friendship 
of all with whom he has come into contact, 
either in business or social relations, and 
manifesting himself as a man of deep human 
sympathy and generous spirit. In the spring 
of 1898 he used his right of homestead on a 
tract of 160 acres in the Teton Basin, on.? 
mile north of the young town of Haden, and 
here his family has since resided. 

On June 25, 1875, at Salt Lake, Utah, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Fullmer and 
Miss Lucinda Monroe, a daughter of Mar- 
cellus and Lucinda (Bousenbark) Monroe, 
natives respectively of Virginia and New 
York, the father being a veteran of the Mexi- 
can war, for which he receives a pension, and 
he is now maintaining his home at Clifton, 
Idaho, having accomplished seventy-eight 
years of life, the mother having passed from 
early in 1887, at the home of Mrs. Fullmer, 
when she was forty-four years old, her burial 
occurring at Providence, Utah. Seven chil- 
dren have come to the marriage union of 
Mr. and Mrs. Fullmer. Arthur, Pearl, Maida, 
Edna, Lucinda, Leland, Earl. 

WILLARD S. FYELDSTED. 

For sixteen years a resident of Preston 
and during the greater part of that time 



prominent in the stock business and the coun- 
cils of the Mormon church, taking also an 
active part, not only in politics but in the 
public affairs of the community in general, 
Willard S. Fyeldsted has been one of the in- 
fluential and forceful factors in building up 
this section of the state, and has exemplified 
in public and in private life, in business and 
in church relations, many of the best at- 
tributes of American citizenship. He de- 
scends from long lines of old Danish ances- 
try, his parents. Christian D. and Caroline 
(Olson) Fyeldsted, being natives of Denmark, 
and belonging to families resident in that 
country from time immemorial. 

Mr. Fyeldsted was also born in Denmark, 
first seeing the light of this world on August 
10, 1853. His parents became members of 
the church of the Latter Day Saints in their 
native land, and then were eager to live in the 
midst of its people and in close touch with its 
central organization. Accordingly, in 1858. 
when he was but five years old, they emi- 
grated, coming to America and with a train 
of ox teams they crossed the great plains of 
our country to Utah, arriving at Salt Lake 
City in the fall of that year. The long and 
tedious journey and its attendant hardships 
and privations, with its accompanying thrill- 
ing incidents and wonderful experiences, were 
permanently fastened upon the memory of 
the subject of this review. 

The family made their home at Salt Lake, 
where the father worked at his trade as an 
ironmolder, the first craftsman in that line 
who ever came to the Mormon metropolis. 
He lived at Salt Lake City for eighteen years, 
working steadily and profitably at his trade 
all of the time except when he was away on 
missions. Of these he filled many, nearly all 
in the old country, passing between the time 
of his arrival in America and the present time 
about sixteen vears in such work across the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES,. IDAHO. 



161 



water. In 1871 he was called by the church 
to Logan, and, purchasing land there for a 
farm, he moved his family to that place and 
has since made it his home. During his resi- 
dence there he has devoted the most of his 
time to church work. He was called to be 
one of the seven presidents of the Council of 
Seventy and is second in authority. The 
mother died on August 4, 1891, and was 
buried at Logan. 

Their son, Willard S. Fyeldsted, grew to 
manhood and received his early training at 
Salt Lake City, removing to Logan when he 
was twenty-one years old and there attending 
the church academy, where he completed his 
education. He had earlier learned the trade 
of a carpenter and worked at it for nine years 
in Logan and the surrounding country. In 
November, 1887, he removed to Preston, 
where he bought the ranch which has since 
been his home and is located a mile and a 
half north of the town. Soon after the pur- 
chase he brought his family to the ranch and 
from that time he has been actively and con- 
tinuously engaged in raising stock and car- 
rying on diversified farming. 

By close application of his industry, in- 
telligence and business capacity, he has made 
a great success of his undertaking, and. is 
accounted one of the most progressive and 
enterprising cattle 'men in the county. He 
has devoted much time and attention to local 
public affairs and has been active in the 
service of the Republican party, to which he 
holds a firm and faithful allegiance. He is 
also an earnest and diligent worker for the 
Mormon church, serving now as the first 
president of the One Hundred and Sixteenth 
Council of the Seventies. 

On October 24, 1879, at Salt Lake, he 
married with Miss Sarah C. Hansen, a native 
of Utah and a daughter of Neils and Caro- 
line (Anderson) Hansen, natives of Denmark. 



who became members of the Mormon faith 
in their native land and came to Utah in 1856. 
The)' remained in Salt Lake City two years, 
then removed to Brigham City and engaged 
in farming until the Indian troubles of 1869 
drove them with others to the southern part 
of the state. In 1871 they located at Logan 
and there continued agricultural operations, 
in 189 1 removing to Alberta, Canada, where 
they again engaged in farming and cattlerais- 
ing, remaining there until death, that of the 
mother occurring on December 2, 1901. and 
that of the father on December 13, 1902. 
Both are buried at Preston, Idaho. Their 
sons are still raising stock and farming in 
Canada. Mr. and Mrs. ' Fyeldsted have had 
ten children, of whom eight are living, 
Aredela L.. Edgar N.. Ezra, Warren H., 
Katie L., Eda S., Milford W. and Mattie J. 
Those deceased are Willard D., who died on 
December 22, 1898, at the age of nineteen 
years, and May C, who died on September 
26, 1898, aged seventeen years. 

HUGH S. GEDDES. 

Hugh S. Geddes, one of the leading ranch- 
men and stockgrowers of Oneida county, Ida- 
ho, and one of the brilliant lights of the Mor- 
mon church in this part of the state, was born 
at Plain City, Weber county, Utah, on July 25, 
1859, the son of William and Martha ( Stew- 
art) Geddes, natives of Glasgow, Scotland. In 
early life the}' - became members of the Mormon 
church and determined to emigrate to the 
United States. Fate decreed that they should 
take the same steamer to this country, although 
they had never previously met. They also trav- 
eled by the same train of ox teams across the 
plains to Utah after reaching America. After 
their arrival at Salt Lake City they were mar- 
ried and settled down to the business of life 
in their new home in that city. 



1 62 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



The first employment the father had was in 
1854, the year of their migration. He assisted 
in the construction of the temple, afterward 
working in the city until the fall of 1858. Mov- 
ing then to where Plain City now stands, he 
here took up land and aided in founding the 
city. This he made his home until his death, 
except two years of residence at Preston in this 
state, where he located land and began farming, 
but at the end of the period named returned to 
Utah. He prospered as a farmer and stock- 
grower, and became very influential and serv- 
iceable in church work, going around the world 
on missions and bringing in many converts to 
the faith. He was one of the seven presidents 
of the Seventy at the time of his death on Au- 
gust 23, 1899. His widow followed him to the 
better world on August 11, 1900. 

Their son Hugh grew to man's estate at 
Plain City, receiving his education there and at 
Brigham Young Academy at Log'an. After 
leaving school he worked with his father on the 
farm for some years, during this time learning 
the trade of blacksmith. When he was twenty- 
two years old he entered the employ of the Ore- 
gon Short Line Railroad as a blacksmith, work- 
ing in the northern part of the state. In April, 
1883, he moved to Preston, in this state, where 
he engaged in farming until 1894. when he 
bought the ranch on which he now lives, one 
mile southwest of the center of the town, and 
here he has since made his home. He also owns 
a ranch east of the town and is actively and ex- 
tensively engaged in farming and stockraising. 

Mr. Geddes has always taken a leading part 
in public affairs and in the work of the church. 
He was counsellor to Bishop Larsen when the 
ward was divided and was then made bishop 
of the Second ward. For ten years he served as 
superintendent of the Sunday school and in 
188S went on a mission to New Zealand, where 
he remained two years and seven months. On 
August 12, 1883, at Salt Lake City, he was 



married to Miss Martina Peterson, also a na- 
tive of Plain City, a daughter of Hans and 
Martina (Hansen) Peterson, both natives of 
Denmark. They were early settlers in Utah, 
locating there in 1850, having come direct from 
their native land. The father was a farmer and 
died in 1880 at Plain City, where the mother 
is now living. Mr. and Mrs. Geddes have 
seven children, Estella, Hugh L.. Maud. 
Moses, Grant, Elva and Arch P. 

MARTIN JOHXSOX. 

Martin Johnson, one of the pioneers of 
Preston, Idaho, is a person of strong charac- 
teristics, and occupies a high place in the pub- 
lic regard. As a contractor and builder many 
of the best residences and business blocks of the 
town are monuments to his architectural taste 
and ability. He is a native of Norway, born 
on February 14, 1846, and was reared and edu- 
cated in his native land, his father being a 
farmer in that country. After leaving school 
he served his apprenticeship at the trade of 
cabinetmaking and worked at it until 1867. 
when he came to the United States and located 
at Milwaukee, Wis., where he worked at his 
trade and as a carpenter for four years. 

On April 21, 1869, Mr. Johnson was mar- 
ried to Miss Caroline Hendrickson, a native of 
Norway, who came to the" United States dur- 
ing the year of 1868, and also located at Mil- 
waukee. They were united in marriage by Di- 
vid Keene, D. D., rector of St. John's church. 
Milwaukee, Wis. Twelve children are the 
fruit of their wedlock, five boys and seven girls. 
On the 15th day of March, 1870, their first 
child. Annie C, later Mrs. Cyrus Curtis, of 
Preston, was born at Milwaukee, Wis. 

During the spring of 1871 Mr. Johnson 
moved to Minneapolis, Minn., where he pur- 
chased a farm of eighty acres and placed his 
family thereon, while he continued to follow his 




MR. AND MRS. MARTIN JOHNSON. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



165 



trade, which he did in that city for eight years, 
during the last five being the trusted and effi- 
cient foreman for W. P. Burnett, one of the 
largest building contractors of Minneapolis at 
that time. Three children were born to the 
parents while living on this farm, Matilda, 
March 10, 1872, who became the wife of Jo- 
seph Davis, of Scranton, Pa.; Henry C, Sep- 
tember 23, 1874, who married Miss Mary Ber- 
tos, of Weber, Utah, and their son, Julius, on 
October 7, 1876. He later married Miss Mar- 
ion Jensen, of Bear River City, Utah. In 1877 
Martin Johnson and his family became con- 
verts to the Mormon faith and in the year of 
1878 they decided to make their home in Utah, 
and during the month of September of that 
year they arrived at Logan, where . they re- 
mained for one year, Mr. Johnson working at 
his trade. It was during their stay at Logan, 
Utah, that their daughter, Minnie, who in after 
years was Mrs. Joseph Condie, of Morgan, 
Utah, was born on June 3, 1879. 

During the month of December, 1879, Mr. 
Johnson with his family moved to Idaho and 
settled on a homestead in the precinct of Pres- 
ton and county of Oneida, his house being the 
third one built in the neighborhood. The wife 
and children stayed on the farm continuously 
from that time, but Mr. Johnson returned to 
Logan, Utah, and was employed to run the 
sash-and-door factory of Lundberg & Garff. 
This he did for six years, and applied the pro- 
ceeds of his labor to the improvement of his 
homestead. In 1886, he started a mercantile 
business at Preston in partnership with J. C. 
Greaves & Co. They handled general mer- 
chandise in connection with contracting and 
building. In 1891 he sold out his interests in 
the merchandising institution and once more 
returned to his trade, and for the preceding 
three years he worked at Salt Lake City, Utah. 

In 1895 he retired from active Work at his 
trade and sought the companionship of his 



family, giving his personal supervision to the 
farm, which care had hitherto devolved upon 
his wife, and in this line of industry he has 
continued to be occupied until the present writ- 
ing. His well-tilled land, his fine brick resi- 
dence, his commodious and comfortable barn, 
shop and other buildings all proclaim him an 
excellent farmer and an enterprising man. He 
is one of the prosperous and progressive men 
of the county. In politics he is a staunch Re- 
publican and during the campaign of 1898 he 
was the choice of his party for the office of 
assessor and collector for Oneida county, and 
came within one vote of being elected. 

While living on the homestead at Preston 
seven children have been born, to the family, 
of whom the following are alive today : Martin 
Johnson, Jr., born on April 16, 188 1, mar- 
ried Miss Adeline Kershaw, of Preston; Caro- 
line E., born on March 15, 1884; Heber G, 
born on January 23, 1888. Mrs. Martin John- 
son is a woman of kindly disposition, and, en- 
dowed with a strong physique, she is a true 
representative of her sturdy race. She has 
been a true and noble helpmeet to her husband 
and a tender mother to his children, while to 
all that which adorns or blooms around the 
homestead today, she can justly point with 
pride and say : "I have been a potent factor in 
its accomplishment." 

JOHN A. GARNER. 

Little would coming generations know of 
the many obstacles encountered by the sturdy 
pioneers of any section of. the Great West, the 
privations and hardships they have experienced, 
did not the faithful and competent historian 
preserve in volumes like the present compila- 
tion the story of their lives taken from their 
own lips in the honest simplicity of truthful ut- 
terances, and these will be read in the far-off 
vears to come with a reverential awe and honor 



1 66 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



for those who laid broad and deep the founda- 
tions of the structure of a stately civilization. 

John A. Garner was born at Ogden. I "tali. 
on September n. 1856, a son of Philip and 
Mary (Hedrick) Garner, the father born in 
Roan county, N. C, on October 11, 1808. died 
September 16. 1872. at Ogden. Utah, being one 
of the strong men of the Mormon church, him- 
self and wife, who was born on September 25, 
181 1, in the state of Indiana, died on March 3. 
iX<)2. at Ogden, Utah, both taking part 
in the first movement toward the settlement of 
Utah that was agitated. The}- started from 
their home in Iowa for the promised land, in 
1847, an d joined the Mormon battalion organ- 
ized for the United States service in the war 
with Mexico, the mother and sister being left 
in a covered wagon to tarry on the banks of the 
Missouri near Council Bluffs, with practically 
no means of subsistence, except an implicit de- 
pendence on Providence which preserved them 
all safely until the return of the father after 
an absence of two years. Continuing then the 
long interrupted journey to Utah, the mother 
traveled on foot the entire distance of 1,000 
miles over the vast stretches of sandy desert, 
the trail all of the way being marked by hun- 
dreds of graves of those pilgrims who had 
failed to endure and had fallen by the way. 

On their arrival in Deseret they located at 
the infant settlement of Ogden, where, on the 
tract of government land on which he located, 
the father continued the family home and was 
an industrious farmer until he died in 1871 at 
sixty-six years of age, after a long siege of 
sickness. The subject of this review concluded 
that there was little hope of his acquiring a 
competency in Utah for long years under the 
conditions surrounding him, and leaving Ogden 
on April 19, 1883. after a personal investiga- 
tion of the Upper Snake River Valley and the 
Teton count}-, of Idaho, a location and a per- 
manent home was made at Teton City, on May 



7, 1883. In the early years the suffering was 
great at the new home, the mosquitoes, in the 
expressive language of the times, "nearly eat 
them alive." A horse was traded for sufficient 
logs to build a house, $4.50 for a hundred feet 
was paid at Market Lake for lumber, which 
came in all widths and thicknesses, out of which 
a very uneven floor was laid; but gradually bet- 
ter times came and prosperity smiled, water 
was brought to the land that would now pro- 
duce crops, the mosquitoes largely disappeared 
and things moved pleasantly. The mother at- 
tained the age of eighty-one years, dying at Og- 
den. Utah. 

Becoming familiar early with all the details 
of farming life by continuous labor on his fa- 
ther's farm, John A. Garner was well fitted to 
engage in agricultural labors for himself at the 
attainment of his majority, and was so occu- 
pied for two years at Ogden, he then becoming 
a check-clerk in the employment of the Union 
Pacific Railroad for three years, thereafter, in 
188 1. coming to Teton City. Idaho, which made 
headquarters for extensive cattle and sheep- 
raising operations, at which he was diligently 
occupied for nineteen years, thereafter, in mm i2, 
purchasing real estate near the mill in Rex- 
burg, where he now maintains his home, hav- 
ing been prospered in his undertakings. He is 
liberal and generous advocate and supporter oi 
all valuable improvements of either a public 
or private character, becoming actively identi- 
fied with the construction of the early irriga- 
tion canals, and being the secretary and treas- 
urer of the Wolf Canal Co., the pioneer com- 
pany and later merged with the Teton Island 
Canal Co., and he still has the prior claim to the 
water from the Teton River. From childhood 
Mr. Garner has been a consistent member of 
the Mormon church, holding with efficiency the 
offices of teacher, deacon, priest and high coun- 
sellor of his stake. In the fall of [898 lie was 
called to mission work in California for two 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



167 



years, during which time he visited all of the 
towns along the coast of that state. 

On November 24, 1882, Mr. Garner and 
Charlotte Pincock were joined in marriage, the 
bride being the daughter of John and Isabelle 
(Douglas) Pincock, pioneer settlers of Utah 
and a full account of their lives and activities 
is to be found in the sketch of Bishop John E. 
Pincock, on other pages of this volume. To 
this truly felicitous marriage have come eight 
children, John E., born August 4, 1882 ; Violet, 
bom May 22, 1884, died June 20, 1896 ; 
George A., born October 29, 1886; Walter M., 
born September 21, 1890; Ray Douglas, born 
November 27. 1892; Florence M., born Au- 
gust 3, 1897, died February 13, 1899; Lucille, 
born October 6, 1901, died January 27, 1902; 
Mary Ethel, born November 14, 1902. 

NEIL GILCHRIST. 

Of all the nationalities which have contrib- 
uted of their sons to aid in the reclamation, im- 
provement and the development of the lands of 
the Great West, sturdy Scotland has sent one 
of the strongest delegations, as its members 
have ever been men of strong character, rug- 
ged independence, stalwart frames and robust 
physiques, whose mental endowments and edu- 
cational qualifications would easily place them 
in the front rank of citizenship, and it is a dem- 
onstrable fact that today, in every town, village 
and city of this vast Union, men of Scottish 
birth or of Scottish extraction are most capably 
holding private and public trusts of prominence 
and responsibility, and everywhere they are 
good, law-abiding people of worth and impor- 
tance. 

Such is the people Neil Gilchrist, now an in- 
dependent and representative farmer of Lewis- 
ville, Fremont county, Idaho, claims as his own 
people, for he was born in Argyleshire, in the 
Highlands of Scotland, on April 7, 1844, a son 



of Neil and Mary (Blair) Gilchrist, the lin- 
eage running in Scottish history beyond the 
memory of man. The father was a fisherman 
in his native land, the family emigrated in 1861 
and 1864 and in due time were located on an 
allotment of land at Lehi, Utah, where the fa- 
ther set out one of the finest orchards of that 
prolific section and which he cared for until 
the time of his death, in 1885, at the age of 
eighty-four years. The mother did not know 
her age, but she distinctly remembered seeing 
Napoleon's coach after the battle of Waterloo. 

Neil Gilchrist of this review was but nine- 
teen years old when he emigrated, and after 
reaching Utah he was engaged in various em- 
ployments. In 1865 he drove ox teams back 
to the Missouri to assist immigrants to advance 
their journey to Salt Lake, and in the Black 
Hills the party was attacked by hostile Sioux, 
who stampeded the most of their cattle. Know- 
ing that the band of Indians was far too strong 
for the members of the party to attempt a re- 
covery of their stock, they did not attempt a 
recapture. As the cattle had been furnished by 
the settlers of Utah for the purpose of assisting 
the incoming people, the loss of them was great, 
as the rescuers were now also crippled. They 
managed to exist and joined the company they 
were to aid, and all had now to wait until an- 
other relief party came from Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Gilchrist well remembers the grasshop- 
per plague of 1868 when all crops in Utah were 
destroyed and enormous prices were asked for 
all commodities. This was only one of the 
trials that the Mormon settlers had to endure 
but which were met with patient resignation 
and a loyal trust in "Him who doeth all things 
well." 

From 1867 he was employed as a house 
painter in Lehi until 1884, hence coming to the 
new settlement of the Upper Snake River of 
Idaho, and, like others who had sojourned here, 
he used his homestead right, obtaining 160 



i68 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



acres of land, on which he made a permanent 
home, by his diligence, toil and ingenious abil- 
ity bringing it into a rich and productive prop- 
erty, yielding annual large crops of hay and 
grain, stockraising being carried as an impor- 
tant auxiliary. Irrigation was the thing to be 
first brought about in the new community and 
every one put his shoulder to the wheel to se- 
cure a speedy flow of water on the land. 

Air. Gilchrist surveyed the old pioneer ca- 
nal, the Parks and Lewisville canal, graded the 
ditch constructed in the old dry- channel of the 
river, and served for some years as a director 
of the company. In public life he has served 
as a school trustee with acknowledged ability 
and has the distinction of organizing the first 
school of Lewisville in the Fifth district. He 
has been suggested for and held the nomination 
for other offices, but owing to the exigencies 
of the place and period has failed of an election. 
In 1865 he received the ordination of an elder 
in the Mormon church, holding it for the long 
period of twenty-five years, and until he was 
made a high priest in 1900. 

At Lehi, Utah, on June 2, 1866, Mr. Gil- 
christ was united in marriage with Miss Eliza- 
beth Scovey, a daughter of George and Jane 
(Light) Scovey, natives of England, where she 
was born at Southampton, on June 22, 1847, 
and where her father still resides at eighty 
years of age, the mother having been called 
from earth in 1900. Mrs. Gilchrist is an active 
laborer in the activities of the church, being at 
the present writing the very popular counsellor 
to the president of the Relief Society. The 
familv is highly esteemed in the county, among- 
whose residents they number many friends. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Gilchrist have been born the 
following children : Alice, deceased, born nn 
August 17, 1869 ; Jane, born on March 2. 1870 : 
Neil, bom on April 28. 1872 ; Robert, born on 
August 7, 1874; George. August 16, 1876; 
John, born on July 22, 1878; Elizabeth, born 



on February 10, 1882; Samuel, born on April 
2 5, 1S83; Rose, born on September 24, 1885: 
Eva, born on July 16. 1888; Violet, born on 
August 1, 1892. The two youngest died in in- 
fancy. 

THOMAS GEORGE. 

This well-known and popular citizen of Fre- 
mont county. Idaho, where he is engaged in 
conducting the only confectionery store of Rex- 
burg, also in connection therewith presenting 
the only entire stock of other confectionery 
goods, tobacco, cigars, etc., displayed in the 
thriving town, is a native of Greece, where his 
birth occurred on September 15, 1871. a son 
of George and Helena George. When he was 
eighteen months of age his parents removed 
to Syria in Asia, where the father engaged in 
the culture of silk worms and also in the gen- 
eral agricultural operations of the place and 
period, dying there at the age of fifty-seven 
years. In 1S86 the subject of this sketch went 
to Paris, France, and, after a year's residence 
in that beautiful city, he crossed the Atlantic 
Ocean to New York, thence proceeding to Cal- 
ifornia, where he was located about two years 
in the fruit and confectionery trade, thereafter 
coming to Idaho, where he and his brother, Jo- 
seph, became peddlers of notions. 

Locating permanently at Rexburg in 1884. 
Thomas immediately started a profitable and 
popular restaurant, conducting it for two years 
with such financial advantage that in 1886 he 
opened the Commercial House, the first hotel 
in the young city. After being the affable and 
courteous landlord of this well-patronized house 
of entertainment for three years, he leased a 
convenient property and gave his entire atten- 
tion to the building of a candy trade of scope 
and importance, meeting with such success that 
he soon was enabled to build an establishment 
of his own, suitably constructed and arranged 
to meet the wants of his rapidly growing busi- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



169 



ness, and here he is now in trade, displaying as 
fine a line of goods as the most pretentious city 
houses can produce, carrying a fine assortment 
of all sorts of candies and confections, together 
with the popular lines of cigars, tobaccoes, 
canned meats and fruits, and kindred goods, 
retaining and maintaining a high standard, and 
being known as a representative merchant and a 
highly estimable and progressive citizen, and 
receiving a large and profitable patronage. 

Mr. George married, on February 11, 1900, 
with Miss Hilma Marie Jensen, a daughter of 
Franz G. and Marie Augusta (Colsen) Jensen, 
natives of Sweden, who came to the United 
States and to Utah direct from their native 
land in a company of Mormon emigrants, lo- 
cating at Sandy, Utah, where the father was 
for a time engaged in construction work on the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, thence about 1887 
coming to Burton, Idaho, where they are now 
residing, the father at fifty-six years of age and 
the mother at fifty-two. Two bright and in- 
teresting children have come to the home of 
Mr.. and Mrs. George as the result of their mar- 
riage, Helena, born on October 22, 1900, and 
Thomas C, born on March 16, 1902. 

RUFUS GOODRICH. 

"The West is peopled with brave men, as 
men's bravery is measured," but it has some no- 
table citizens whose experiences extend back 
into the days of constant adventure and ever 
present peril, and could the experiences and 
exploits of such men be written down and put 
into book form, they would constitute a most 
valuable contribution to the knowledge of com- 
ing generations concerning the life and activi- 
ties of the days when the West was new. A 
good representative of the early business class 
is Rufus Goodrich, now one of the solid citizens 
of Annis, Idaho, where, still in the strength and 
vital manhood of a well-preserved middle life, 



he is busily engaged in the diversified farming 
operations so fully carried to success in the 
Snake River Valley. He was born on April 4. 
1850, in Whiteside county, 111., as a son of 
Isaac B. and Margaret (Garnnell) Goodrich, 
the parents being natives respectively of New 
York and of Ireland, who were married at Cort- 
land, N. Y., and removed to Whiteside county, 
on December 20, 1854, thereafter becoming 
residents of Crawford county, Iowa, where the 
father entered the first fifty acres of land en- 
tered in that county, and, a useful and an hon- 
ored citizen, resided there until his death, 
which occurred in 1883 at the age of seventy- 
eight years, the mother passing from earth 
when seventy-six years old in 1884, being the 
mother of thirteen children. 

At fifteen years of age Rufus Goodrich be- 
came connected with the practical labor of a 
brickyard in Winona county, Iowa, only re- 
maining there four months before he engaged 
as a. teamster in the hauling of goods from 
Denison to Sioux City, Iowa, continuing in this 
employment, farming and other industries until 
1875, when he secured a position on the steamer 
Carl, owned by Tim Burleigh, plying between 
Sioux City and Fort Benton, Montana, leaving 
this service at Fort Benton, where he remained 
one year, then engaged in freighting operations 
with a "bull-team" outfit, taking freight from 
all of the Missouri River landings, and his was 
the second outfit that "loaded" at Glendive after 
the Northern Pacific Railroad reached that 
place. Following this vocation steadily for 
seven years, he, in December, 1882, returned 
to Iowa and there changed his occupation to 
farming and the extensive feeding of cattle, fol- 
lowing these correlative branches of agriculture 
until November. 1897, when began his connec- 
tions with the Snake River Valley, since he 
then removed to Idaho Falls, bringing with 
him a fine bunch of cattle which he grazed on 
the hills of the surrounding countrv for two 



PROGRESSIJ'E HI EN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



seasons, Mrs. Goodrich in the meantime re- 
maining at Idaho Falls. In 1899 he closed out 
his cattle interests by sale and purchased the 
fine estate of 149 acres of land at Annis, Fre- 
mont county, where he has since maintained his 
home, being now as actively employed in farm- 
ing as heretofore in any of the other strenuous 
occupations he has pursued, and counted as one 
of the reliable, progressive and representative 
men of the valley. 

On May 21, 1885. at Denison. Iowa, Mr. 
Goodrich was united in marriage with Miss 
Emma Beach, a daughter of Marcus and Cor- 
nelia (La Hunter) Beach, the father being a 
native of Berlin, Germany, and the mother of 
Berne. France, her own birth taking place at 
Covington, Kentucky. Her parents both 
crossed the Atlantic westward in sailing vessels 
in their youth, each locating in New York, 
where they met and were married. One of her 
grandfathers erected one of the first flouring 
mills of New York city, and, an excellent me- 
chanic in many trades, he had the unique dis- 
tinction of making the first bedstead ordered 
by the famous Gen. Tom Thumb after his mar- 
riage. From New York the parents of Mrs. 
Goodrich removed to Cambridge, Ky., and 
from there to Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence, in 
1888, to Iowa, where the father was the very 
capable foreman of the Stevens Carving Fac- 
tory at Muscatine for a period of time, there- 
after removing to Tipton, Iowa, where was his 
home at the time of his death, at seventy- four 
years of age, in 1802. The mother, a remark- 
ably well-preserved woman for seventy-four 
years, is now a resident of Wisconsin. 

To the eminently felicitous marriage of Mr. 
.and Mrs. Goodrich has come a family of three 
children, all born at Denison, Iowa. Mildred, 
on September 13, 1888; Verne, on June 30, 
1894; Lloyd, on October 13, 1896. The fam- 
il\ has occupied a distinctive place in social cir- 
1 the places of their residence, while Mr. 



Goodrich is noted for his co-operation in all 
public and local affairs conducive to the besr 
interests of the people, being an active sup- 
porter of the principles of the Republican polit- 
ical party, and a liberal-minded citizen who eas- 
ily wins and retains strong friends. 

HENRY C. GORTON. 

Among the alert and sterling young men of 
business talent and capacity that are rapidly 
forging to the front as the truly progressive and 
representative men of Bear Lake county, Henry 
C: Gorton, now the manager of the Gorton sup- 
pi}- store at Soda Springs, Idaho, deserves con- 
spicuous mention. Descending from families 
in both paternal and maternal lines that have 
been as leading representatives closely connect- 
ed with the stirring events in this country's 
history for many generations, he is entitled to 
more than a mere mention in any work that 
purports to deal with the lives and records of 
the progressive men of this section of the state, 
since he is a native of Soda Springs, a son of 
parents who have long been identified with the 
welfare of this section in many ways, and the 
present very efficient county treasurer of Ban- 
nock count} - . His whole life for nearly a quar- 
ter of a century has been passed among the ac- 
tivities and business operations that have re- 
sulted in the creation and development of the 
beautiful city of his residence and in placing 
civilization throughout the broad extent of the 
country of his birth. 

Henry C. Gorton was born on August 5. 
[878, a son of George VV. and Leah ( Waylett) 
Gorton, the father being a native of Scranton, 
Pa., and the mother of Utah. George W. ( lor- 
ton was a man of unusual business talents and 
mental capabilities, and was for a long period 
of time the superintendent of the large salt 
works in the Star Valley of Idaho, coming to 
this country at the close of the Civil war, in 



BINGHAM., FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



171 



which he loyally served in defense of the Union 
in both the infantry and cavalry branches 
of the Union army. 

The capability of Hon. George W. Gorton 
for competently holding public offices of trust 
and importance were frequently recognized by 
the intelligent voters of the community, they at 
various times selecting him to hold the positions 
of assessor, county commissioner and county 
treasurer, while he was also honored with the 
nomination and election as a representative in 
the Idaho state Legislature from the district 
comprising Bingham and Custer counties. He 
was a son of Job P. and Deborah (Sweet) Gor- 
ton, natives of Providence, R. I., descendants 
of the first American ancestor, Samuel Gorton, 
who was one of a company that accompanied 
Roger Williams to the then wilderness of that 
state, and laid broad and deep the foundations 
of civil and religious liberty in that section of 
the country, becoming an historic character of 
that state. 

Not only in the early Indian wars of New 
England, but through all the critical periods of 
the existence of the colony, the Gorton family 
was prominent, two of the same serving 
through the Revolutionary war with distin- 
guished patriotism in the Continental service. 
Job P. Gorton was for the greater part of his 
life engaged in agricultural pursuits near 
Scranton, Pa., where George W. Gorton was 
born and reared, thence coming to the West 
and to Idaho, and there, at Malad City, on No- 
vember 3, 1877, occurred his marriage with 
Miss Leah Waylett, a daughter of William and 
Sarah (Williams) Waylett, the father being a 
native of, England and the mother of Wales. 
Her father, long a successful teacher, came to 
Utah in 1853, and his marriage occurred on 
board the steamer on which himself and his 
future wife crossed the Atlantic, and on the 
very day they left England. This worthy 
couple have had seven children, of whom six 
are still living. 



George W. Gorton was one of the pioneers 
of this section of the state, and, after his mar- 
riage, he made his home at Soda Springs, the 
development of which place and its business in- 
terests have come largely about through his 
enterprising efforts, his rare sagacity and his 
unusual influence in the community. He pur- 
chased the stock and business of H. Moore & 
Co. in 1889 and conducted a profitable mercan- 
tile business, which rapidly extended in propor- 
tion with the development and settlement of the 
surrounding country, being very influential and 
prosperous there until the time of his death, 
which occurred at San Diego, on January 5, 
1899, at tne a g* e °f fifty-two years. Fraternally 
a valued member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, he also stood high on the roster 
of the Grand Army of the Republic Post at 
Idaho Falls. 

The eleven children of George W. and Leah 
(Waylett) Gorton were Henry C, the subject 
of this review; Mabel died November 7, 1890; 
Daisy died November 10, 1890; Edith died 
November 5, 1890; Deborah died December 
17, 1890; Georgia died in April, 1896; George 
W., now residing in Soda Springs; Shroup and 
Dubois, twins ; Jay P. and Eastman. 

Henry C. Gorton, the eldest of the children 
of his parents and the immediate subject of this 
review, received an excellent practical educa- 
tion in the public schools of Soda Springs, sup- 
plementing- this by a diligent attendance at the 
agricultural college located at Logan, Utah, un- 
til 1889, when, upon the death of his father, he 
relinquished his studies and became actively 
engaged in mercantile pursuits in his native 
place as the manager of the commercial and 
financial operations which his father had here 
developed. The extensive mercantile business 
with which Mr. Gorton is connected is known 
as Gorton's Wholesale and Retail Supply Store, 
of which his mother, Mrs. Leah Gorton, is the 
proprietress, and on their shelves they display a 
verv full line of drvgoods, men's furnishings. 



172 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



hats, caps, clothing, boots, shoes, hardware, 
and in fact, all kinds of stockmen, ranchers' 
and miners' supplies. Not only merchandising, 
but valuable real-estate interests located here, 
demand the attention of Mr. Gorton. The fam- 
ily also owns a large public hall and a commo- 
dious and attractive residence of modern 1 de- 
sign, architecture and improvements. 

Although not yet in the prime of life, Mr. 
Gorton has a reputation for business sagacity 
and financial ability equal to that possessed by 
many men of much more extended experience, 
and he may properly be honored as one of the 
pioneers of this proud commonwealth, since 
during his existence here he has seen the state 
emerge from territorial crudeness to its present 
civilization, and he is one who has played the 
part of an intelligent, earnest and industrious 
citizen, earning many friends by his genial 
qualities and personal worth, standing high 
among business men through the wisdom of his 
financial operations. 

In 1902 Mr. Gorton was placed in nomina- 
tion by the Republican party for the responsible 
position of county treasurer, and was successful 
at the polls, being elected by a highly gratify- 
ing majority, and he is now in the incumbency 
of that office, being the. youngest county official 
in service. On August 27, 1902, occurred the 
marriage of Mr. Gorton with Miss Precilla 
Terry, a native of Utah, and a daughter of 
William and Clara (Brown) Terry, early pio- 
neers of Utah. 

Mrs. Leah Gorton stands as a veritable 
mother in Israel, enjoying the esteem and the 
admiration of the entire community by the 
many admirable traits of character which she 
has manifested all along life's pathway, the 
cheerfulness with which she has borne trials 
and difficulties, and the deep religious trust 
which has ever been a conspicuous tribute to 
her character, and the family occupies a most 
exalted station, not only in the city and county 



of their residence, but numbers many friends 
in other states. 

SPEED R. STAGNER. 

The pioneers of the Great West are rapidly 
passing away ; even now comparatively few are 
left to tell the stirring tales of life in the early 
days. The memory of Mr. Stagner. whose un- 
timely death occurred on April 19, 1903. how- 
ever, linked the past, when this section of the 
West was a wild borderland, with the present, 
when the advantages of civilization of the lat- 
ter are largely enjoyed by the people of the 
West. The traveler through Idaho, Utah 
and Montana sees richly cultivated fields, cattle 
on a thousand hills, substantial homes, thriving 
towns and villages, industrious commercial ac- 
tivities, churches and schools ; yet it was but a 
comparatively short time ago that he and his 
contemporaries were endeavoring to open up 
the wilderness to the advancement of civiliza- 
tion, that the Indian still asserted dominion on 
every side, that the water had not been turned 
through the magnificent canals on the thou- 
sands and thousands of acres of desolate sage- 
brush on which are now raised most magnifi- 
cent crops. Mr. Stagner witnessed each and 
all of the various stages of the transition, the 
advent of the railroad, the telephone and the 
telegraph, and the onward march of improve- 
ments and progress in which he himself ac- 
tively participated, being for some years prior 
to his death also one of the representative busi- 
ness men of the brisk young city of Pocatello. 
Idaho. 

Speed R. Stagner was born on Christmas 
flay. 1847. in Madison county. Ky., a son of 
Jefferson and Nancy (Gusberry) Stagner. where 
his father conducted large stock operations and 
owned numerous slaves, being of English de- 
scent and a representative of one of the oldest 
families of Kentucky. The paternal great- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



175 



grandfather of Mr. Stagner was Thomas Stag- 
ner, a prominent distiller, and his son, Richard, 
was a representative stockman and a raiser of 
horses. Mr. Stagner received his early educa- 
tion in Livingston county, Mo., whither he 
accompanied his father's family in 1848, con- 
tinuing his schooling in Howard county, Mo. 
In 1863, at the age of sixteen, he identified 
himself with the Great West, then crossing the 
plains to Denver, where for four years he was 
engaged in freighting operations, later becom- 
ing interested in the raising of stock and ulti- 
mately locating in Wyoming, being prospered 
in his operations and continuing therein until 
1899, when, selling a portion .of his valuable 
interests, he located in Pocatello and erected a 
large brick livery stable on Clark street and 
Third avenue, North, the largest in the county, 
and engaged in the livery business. His cour- 
tesy, business ability and ample facilities soon 
gave him a wide reputation and he conducted 
a large and prosperous business and became the 
owner of much valuable city property, includ- 
ing a neat cottage residence situated directly 
across the street from his stable. 

Mr. Stagner gained a broad fund of knowl- 
edge and information through his extensive as- 
sociation with men and affairs in the West, and 
his success was gratifying, arising as it did 
from his discrimination, enterprising methods 
and public spirit; and in this connection we 
will mention that he was for four years a most 
capable and efficient count)' commissioner of 
Fremont county, Wyo. It was while a resi- 
dent of Wyoming in 1868 that his marriage 
with Miss Lucy Lajeunesse occurred, and to 
this union sixteen children were born : Alice, 
now the wife of Emery Burnaugh, of Wyo- 
ming, a prominent stockman of Wind River, 
Wyo. ; twins, who died in infancy ; Albert died 
in Wyoming at the age of three years ; Johnnie 
died at the age of eight years ; Eddie died at 
the age of two years ; Lucy died on May 29, 



1898; Elizabeth; Emma; Benjamin; Effie. 
Frederick: Cora; Laura. Mrs. Lucy Stagner 
died in Wyoming on May 5, 1898, and on July 
12, 1900, Mr. Stagner entered into a matri- 
monial association with Miss Celia Cosgrove, 
a native of Indiana and a daughter of Tony 
and Angeline (Le Clair) Cosgrove, and 
two children, Rosie and Maud, came of 
this union. 

Mr. Stagner had a distinguished career in 
connection with military operations- in the 
West; in 1865 he was the efficient scout of 
General Kearney, and in 1876 he was a trusted 
head guide of G enera l Crook in his brilliant 
campaign against the Cheyenne Indians of Pow- 
der River, where those dusky sons of the 
plains were nearly exterminated, later being for 
ten years the capable guide and interpreter of 
General Crook with his headquarters at Fort 
Fetterman, Wyo. There is, perhaps, no man 
now living in Idaho who during his life. has 
seen so much of the varied and peculiar life of 
the plains as did Mr. Stagner, while in business 
relations and in private life he was one of the 
most accessible and obliging of men and well 
deserves the popularity he enjoyed. After his 
death, the Pocatello Tribune said : "Mr. Stag- 
ner's death will be keenly felt by the commu- 
nity. He was an active, aggressive business 
man, who conceived large enterprises and car- 
ried them through with vigor. His was a posi- 
tive personality 'and his 'methods were ener- 
getic. The community can illy spare such men 
as S. R. Stagner." 

THOMAS C. GREAVES. 

Thomas C. Greaves, of Preston, Idaho, 
one of the progressive anrl representative 
farmers and stockmen of Oneida county, 
living on a well-improved and highly culti- 
vated ranch two miles north of Preston, was 
born at Provo, Utah, on November 2. i860,. 



176 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the son of Joseph and Sarah P. (Cluley) 
Greaves, natives of England and residents of 
Liverpool. In 1850 they were converted to 
the Mormon faith and soon after were mar- 
ried. On the day thereafter they set sail for 
America, intending- to live at the head- 
quarters of the Mormon church, and to ac- 
complish this result they crossed the plains 
with ox teams to Utah, bringing cattle with 
them. Thev remained at Salt Lake City 
about two years, then went to Provo, where 
thev took up government land and went to 
farming. After a residence of six years near 
Provo they moved to the vicinity of Logan, 
being among the first settlers in that neigh- 
borhood. Thev then located on land on the 
outskirts of the town and for a number of 
years again engaged in farming. The father 
then went to work at his trade of stone-mason, 
being employed on the Temnle at Salt Lake 
City, but also continued his farming oper- 
ations while he was thus engaged until 1892. 
At that time he returned to his earlier trade 
of tailoring, at which he had wrought in 
Liverpool; at this he is still working in Logan, 
and there he has a prosperous merchant 
tailoring establishment. His wife died in 
1865 and was buried at Logan. 

Thomas C. Greaves grew from childhood 
to manhood at Logan and was educated in 
the public schools of the town. He remained 
at home and worked on the farm with his 
father until he was twenty-one. and in the 
spring of 1882 he moved to Preston, Idaho, 
and took up the ranch on which he now lives, 
two miles north of the town. Here he was 
busily occupied in farming until 1890, when 
he went to work for his brother, John C. 
Greaves, in his general merchandising estab- 
lishment at Preston. He worked in this store 
for nine years, carrying on at the same time 
his farming and stock industries, during this 
time steadily improving- his place, advancing 



its cultivation until he has one of the best and 
most attractive country homes in this section 
of the count}-. In 1903 he formed a mercan- 
tile association with his brother. John C. 
Greaves, and T. W. R. Nelson, under the firm 
title of J. C. Greaves & Co.. and they have 
erected the finest business block of the town, 
being constructed of stone and containing 
their large store, the Bank of Preston, and 
several offices. This building was occupied 
by them on November 2. 1903, since which 
time they have conducted very prosperous 
merchandising. 

In October, 1900, he was sent on a church 
mission to England, and while he traveled 
over most of the island and did missionary 
work in every part, his principal field of labor 
was in Liverpool, the old home of his par- 
ents. In November. 1901, he was called home 
by sickness in his family, and since then he 
has devoted his time to farming. He has 
another ranch besides the home place, distant 
from it about a mile, on which he is building 
a good two-story frame dwelling. On May 
26, 1886, at Salt Lake. Mr. Greaves married 
Miss Hannah Kidd, a native of England and 
a daughter of Samuel and Sarah J. (SmalH 
Kidd, they being also natives of that country. 
Her parents came to Utah and settled at 
Logan in 1873. remaining there until their 
deaths, the mother passing away in 1886 and 
the father in 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Greaves 
have four children, Ethel, Thomas K.. 
Levean, Cluley and Seymour. In 1902 Mr. 
Greaves was called as counsellor to Bishop 
Carver of the Third ward of Preston and is 
effectively performing the duties of this office. 

GEORGE GRIFFITH. 

Coming to the West in the early pioneer 
days when this section was not near enough 
civilization to be called a frontier. Mr. Griffith 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



177 



has had an adventurous life in connection 
with the development of civilization in 
various portions of the great West, where 
he has resided and where have been the cen- 
ters of his activities in many and widely 
diversified directions, and his unbounded 
energy and remarkable powers of weaving 
discordant elements into' harmonious relations 
has given him an honorable reputation as a 
most capable and efficient supporter of law 
and order, and as one of the best types of the 
social and hospitable Westerner, whose geni- 
ality is as broad as her wide plains. Mr. 
Griffith, the popular and efficient sheriff of 
Bannock county, Idaho, has taken distinctive 
pride in watching the various transition 
stages which have eventuated in the creation 
of large states and commonwealths possessing 
the facilities, improvements and even the lux- 
uries of a high civilization. He was born in 
Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on February 19, 
1852, a son of S. R. and Mary J. (Newell) 
Griffith, natives of Pennsylvania, who emi- 
grated from their Ohio farm to Missouri in 
1865, his father there making his permanent 
home and remaining engaged in agriculture 
until his death, at the age of eighty-seven, in 
1897, the mother still residing there at the age 
of eighty-five. In the district schools of the 
county of his birth Mr. Griffith was educated 
until 1868, when he went to Denver, Colo., 
and became connected with prospecting and 
mining operations until 1889, in that year 
coming to Idaho and locating in the little town 
of Pocatello, then aspiring to be recognized 
as a city. He first established himself in the 
liquor business, which he conducted for three 
years and then relinquished it, giving his abil- 
ities to the discharge of the duties of chief of 
police, holding this important position for 
about two years to the satisfaction of the 
law-abiding citizens and the decided dissatis- 
faction of the criminal element, and in 1900 he 



was appointed deputy sheriff of the county, a 
large share of the sheriff's duties devolving 
on him and which were so ably discharged 
that he was thereafter nominated by the Re- 
publican county convention of 1902 as its can- 
didate for sheriff, and at the subsequent elec- 
tion he was elected by a decided compli- 
mentary majority, in view of the great efforts 
put forth to defeat him. While a pioneer of 
the city he was a member of the first council 
of Pocatello. 

In brotherhood circles he holds connection 
with the Masonic fraternity, the Woodmen of 
the World and the Eagles. On November 23, 
1884, occurred the marriage of Mr. Griffith 
with Miss Ellen Mayers, a native of Dayton, 
Ohio, and a daughter of John D. Mayers, a 
prominent citizen of that place. Mr. and Mrs. 
Griffith have had six children : George, Maud, 
Myron R., John, Mary J. and Charles, de-. 
ceased. In the respect that has been accorded 
to such men as Mr. Griffith, who have fought 
their way to success through unpropitious en- 
vironments, there is a recognition of intrinsic 
strength and worthiness of character. 

JOHN H. GRIMMETT. 

In the rapid development of the Great West 
of the United States, many men, coming from 
nearly every civilized country of the world, 
have contributed of their energies and vitality 
to the creation of a new West, rich, powerful 
and a vast aggregation of centers of the best 
civilization. In this laudable labor it is an in- 
teresting fact to note that of this number in 
the last generation, many of the most active 
leaders in the work of progress have been na- 
tive sons of the West, who were born, educated 
and reared under the shadows of the Rockies. 
Conspicuously numbered in this class as one 
who from early youth has done well his part in 
the social, domestic, civil and religious life of 



i 7 8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the localities where he has made his residence, 
is John H. Grimmett, now a prominent and 
prosperous citizen of Bear Lake county, Idaho. 

Mr. Grimmett was born at Salem, Utah, on 
May 16, 1858, being the grandson of Emanuel 
and Ann Grimmett and the son of John and 
Sarah (Passey) Grimmett, natives of Eng- 
land, who emigrated thence in 1855 to seek a 
home wherein they could worship God in the 
full advantages of their faith. After a resi- 
dence of ten years in Utah the family was 
transferred to Paris, Idaho, three years later to 
Dingle, and, in 1878, the father went to Lan- 
der, Wyo., residing there until 1893, when he 
permanently located at Bloomington, Idaho, 
where his death occurred. He was for many 
years an elder in the Church of Latter Day 
Saints, his exemplary life indicating his deeply 
religious nature. 

Attending school until he was fifteen years 
old, learning the trade of carpentry, and work- 
ing on ranches were the occupations chiefly fol- 
lowed by the subject of this review until he 
had attained his majority, passing about two 
of the later years at Lander, Wyo. In 1879, 
being then of legal age, he came to Dingle, in 
Bear Lake Valley, secured land in an eligible 
location, and engaged in the raising of cattle 
and sheep and in the development of his prop- 
erty. He has steadily continued in stockrais- 
ing to the present writing, and his efforts have 
been of a cumulative order, handsome flocks of 
sheep and a large number of cattle now ranging 
under his brand and mark. His estate con- 
sists of 400 acres of highly improved land, well- 
watered and mostly consisting of land suitable 
to the culture of grain and hay, of which he an- 
nually harvests fine crops. 

Mr. Grimmett has ever manifested a great 
interest in whatever would advance the mater- 
ial, educational and religious interests of the 
county, state or nation, ever keeping himself 
well informed of what was going on in the 



world by well-selected reading, taking active 
measures to aid the success of the principles of, 
first, the Democratic and later the Republican 
political party, with which he is in full accord, 
and being called to fill responsible offices of 
public trust, first being elected as the probate 
judge of Bear Lake county, in 1886, and, after 
a gratifying record in the administration of 
that office, serving as a popular county commis- 
sioner in 1896 and 1897. His usefulness in bis 
church may be inferred when we state that he 
was ordained an elder in 1888; in 1892 or- 
dained as a member of the Seventies under the 
hands of F. D. Rich ; ordained as a high priest 
by Wm, N. Rich, on December 16, 1894, being 
made counsellor to the bishop of his ward at 
the same time. 

On November 21, 1883. Mr. Gimmett 
formed a matrimonial alliance with Miss 
Louisa Nate, a daughter of George and Mary 
(Fowler) Nate, natives of England, who came 
from their native land direct to Idaho in 1878 
and 1S79. and here the father now resides, 
holding the office of justice of the peace, the 
mother having passed from earth on January 
10, 1895. The paternal great-grandparents of 
Mrs. Grimmett were William and Elizabeth 
(Collins) New, and her paternal grandparents 
Richard and Sarah (New) Nate, her maternal 
grandfather bearing the name of Samuel 
Fowler. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. 
Grimmett have come eight children, all now 
living: Sarah Louisa, born October 17, 1884; 
Bertha May. born June 19. 1887; Orson H. 
born September 16, 1889; Mabel R., born De- 
cember 4, 1 89 1 ; Lillian M., born April 29, 
1894; George Russell, born November 20. 
1896; Jennie D., born April 14, 1899; John L., 
born September 30, 1901. 

The family is one of the intelligent and cul- 
tured families of the county, occupying a lead- 
ing place in all social matters and functions, 
and Mr. Grimmett is regarded as a public- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



179 



spirited man of charitable impulses and high 
moral character, justly entitled to the prosper- 
ity which has crowned his persistent efforts. 

C. H. HADERLIE. 

One of the truly representative citizens of 
southeastern Idaho, one who has attained popu- 
larity and prominence in connection with in- 
dustrial activities and the business life of his 
section, Mr. Haderlie is now energetically en- 
gaged, not only in ranching and cattleraising, 
but also in the manufacture of lumber, the cen- 
ter of his operations and his residence now 
being located three and one-half miles north- 
west of Freedom postofhce, Wyo., which is his 
address, and lying in Bannock county,' Idaho. 
Mr. Haderlie is one of the generous contribu- 
tions the virile republic" of Switzerland has made 
to the development of the Great West of the 
American union, since he was born in that fair 
land of magnificent scenery on March 28, 1859, 
a son of J. V. and Anna H. (Zollinger) Had- 
erlie, both parents descending from a long line 
of hardy Swiss ancestors who well assisted in 
preserving the liberties of their native land. 

Here his parents attained mature life, mar- 
ried, and passed years of productive industry, 
until occurred their emigration, in 1866, when, 
becoming members of the Mormon church, 
they took up their line of march for Utah, 
where they located at Providence. They were 
most valuable acquisitions to its population, the 
father laboring diligently at carpentry and 
farming, and still there making his home, con- 
sistently and very usefully performing the du- 
ties of his office of high priest of the Mormon 
church, his faithful wife crossing the nver of 
death in 1901, at the age of sixty-nine years, 
being the mother of twelve children. 

Until he was twenty-two years old did the 
subject of this sketch remain at or near the 
parental homestead at Providence, gathering 



instruction and practical wisdom from schools 
and his varied experiences in the different oc- 
cupations in which he engaged, following car- 
pentry for nearly twenty years in Utah. In 1888 
he came to Idaho and to Bannock county, after 
a successful mission to Germany and Switzer- 
land, and located homestead and desert claims 
to the amount of 320 acres, engaging here 
at first with his accustomed energy and ability 
in prosperous farming and in stockraising. In 
addition to his extensive interests in these 
lines, Mr. Haderlie has erected a sawmill, a 
much-needed institution here, which is now in 
successful operation, cutting an average of 
5,000 feet a day. A sterling Democrat in po- 
litical creed, Mr. Haderlie has projected his in- 
dividuality upon the political field of this vicin- 
ity with his accustomed energy and spirit, and 
has for some years creditably filled the office of 
justice of the peace; for eight years he was the 
capable trustee of his county, while in the cir- 
cles of his church he is one of the Seventies. 

Mr. Haderlie united in marriage with Miss 
Anna B. Schiess, born on June 30, 1882, a na- 
tive of Switzerland and a daughter of John and 
Anna (Kurtsteiner) Schiess, emigrants from 
their native land to Utah, where in quiet pas- 
toral life they located at Providence until the 
death of the mother, the father thereafter being 
the recipient of the loving care of his daughter, 
as a member of the family circle of Mr. Hader- 
lie. In this Idaho home is a family of sixteen 
children: Henry W., Lillie B., John J., David 
A., Herman L., Anna, Lula, Ida M„ Edward 
(deceased), Milford, Austin, Frederick W., 
Charles M., Clifford, Corlett. Oliver. Roy and 
Herman. 

AUSTIN and SARAH J. HAMMER. 

How often the element of tragedy comes 
into a narrative when we consider the lifework 
and endeavors of a representative pioneer of 



i8o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the early days of civilization in the Great West, 
and when we come to write of Arthur Ham- 
mer, so long a prominent citizen of this section 
of the United States, the tragic element meets 
and when we come to write of Austin Ham- 
born on April 25, 1835. in Indiana, and from 
there he accompanied his parents, who had at- 
tached themselves to the Mormon faith, over 
the wild, far-stretching and dangerous plains 
to Farmington, Utah. His father was killed 
in the Haun's Mill massacre and his body was 
buried in a well ; the mother, whose maiden 
name was Nancy Elston, continued on her 
journey to Farmington, Utah, where she main- 
tained her residence for a number of years, 
thence removing to South Weber, near Ogden, 
and here her son, Austin, attained manhood 
amid the primitive conditions of the early set- 
tlement. 

Becoming versed in the various methods of 
conducting the different departments of agri- 
cultural labor which were here carried on, 
after attaining manhood he began farming for 
himself in South Weber, not long afterward, 
however, removing to Ogden, in which place 
occurred his marriage with Miss Sarah 
(Drake) Paine, a lady eminently calculated to 
meet and overcome the numerous discomfort- 
ing obstacles which must necessarily attend the 
pioneer life of any new country. Their mar- 
ried life was continued at Ogden for two years 
and then they made their home at Smithfield, 
in Cache Valley, Utah, where 'from 1 1864 to 
1873 they continued prosperous agricultural 
labors. In the latter year they settled in South 
Hooper, near their former home in Weber, and 
here Mr. Hammer continued farming until his 
death, which occurred on March 27, 1886, his 
remains being buried at Ogden. 

He was a man of whom much might be 
written. While leading a life of distinct devo- 
tion, and being prominent in the Mormon 
church, holding the place of elder, he was yet 



one who ever manifested realization of those 
temporal values which were rendered to the 
children of men as aids in the busy and work-a- 
day world, and his life furnishes a distinct les- 
son and incentive. He so employed the prac- 
tical utilities of existence as to make for him- 
self an independent position so far as temporal 
affairs are concerned, while maintaining him- 
self as an important factor in the community 
and contributing to the advancement of the 
general welfare. The story of his useful life is 
short and simple, but replete with qualities for 
which his many friends will ever hold him in 
true reverence. 

Not less worthy of mention is the capable 
.widow, who, after the death of her husband, 
continued in the practical charge of the home- 
stead for about five years, showing that energy 
and sagacity that bringg success. Thence com- 
ing to Idaho, she located a ranch at Wood- 
ville, ten miles west of Idaho Falls, and has 
here conducted a steadily increasing business in 
the cattle industry and has developed a com- 
fortable home embracing all the elements nec- 
essary for the proper development of true man- 
hood and womanhood in her family of ten chil- 
dren, whose names are here annexed : William 
A., Sarah E.. Joseph R.. Nancy A., Jasper J., 
Michael K.. Robert B.. Samuel L., Mary L. 
and George R. 

Her parents were natives of Iowa, and were 
among the pioneers of pioneers of Utah, emi- 
grating thither in 1848. the second year of the 
Mormon migration, crossing- the plains with ox 
teams, settling first at Salt Lake City and later 
becoming pioneer settlers of Ogden. Her father 
attained the office of one of the Seventies in 
the Mormon church and followed farming until 
his death in 1898. Mrs. Hammer was born on 
August 23, 1844. in Illinois, and we note that 
her mother, Sarah (Drake) Paine, passed away 
at Ogden in 1890, and lies buried by the side of 
her husband, being: the mother of ten children. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



181 



Her parents were Daniel and Pauline (Per- 
kins) Drake, natives of Ohio, who, in 1847, 
joined the first Mormon colony on its pioneer 
way to the desert surrounding the great Salt 
Lake, where for a time they made their home, 
eventually removing to the locality, now Mill 
Creek, four miles north of Ogden, where they 
passed their remaining years, Daniel then 
holding office as one of the Seventies. 

Mrs. Hammer has discharged the duties 
appertaining to motherhood in a manner that 
has been eminently satisfactory, and in connec- 
tion with her earnest efforts she has manifested 
the qualities of estimable womanhood. She 
has been throughout all her life a useful mem- 
ber of society, generous to a fault, never with- 
holding assistance from the suffering or the 
needy. In a wide range of acquaintance, she 
has the friendship of all, while during her 
whole life she has manifested those sterling 
qualities of character which have marked the 
great West and made it the abiding place of 
peace and prosperity. 

JASPER HAMMER. 

In the biographical sketch printed on other 
pages of this volume which gives the record of 
Austin and Sarah J. (Paine) Hammer is an 
epitomized account of the history and experi- 
ence of the ancestors of Mr. Hammer, and it 
now devolves upon us to give due recognition 
to this younger member of the family, who has 
faithfully and energetically contributed his 
quota to the development of the section of the 
country where he now maintains his home, 
being a man of public character and a popular 
and useful citizen of the community. 

Jasper Hammer was born on September 2, 
1S71, in Smithfield, Utah, being, as before in- 
dicated, a son of Austin and Sarah J. (Paine) 
Hammer. Until the age of eighteen years he 
was reared in the pleasant atmosphere of the 



paternal home and then engaged in farming 
operations for himself, continuing these until 
1 89 1, when he joined the family emigration to 
the new lands of this part of Idaho, where he 
has since maintained his home, owning a pleas- 
ant and productive place of forty acres of ex- 
cellent land, and being a man of useful activity, 
conducting not only diversified farming and 
stockraising, but taking an active part in all 
public affairs of a local nature and always con- 
cerned in different operations for the welfare 
of the community. 

He is recognized as a distinctive factor in 
all matters pertaining to the development of 
this part of the land, and his influence"has been 
valuable in this direction, while in the church 
of Latter Day Saints he is counted as a con- 
sistent and representative member, being the 
president of the Woodville Branch of Eagle 
Rock ward. In politics he takes active part in 
the campaigns of the Republican political 
party, but has no desire for attaining public 
position, and is no seeker for official honor or 
emoluments. His success has demonstrated 
that this new and progressive state offers su- 
perior advantages to an ambitious and indus- 
trious young man. 

On September 18, 1890, at Logan, Utah, 
Mr. Hammer wedded Miss Sarah A. Bartlett, 
who was born in Wyoming on September 22, 
1871, a daughter of William and Charlotte 
(Robinson) Bartlett, natives respectively of 
England and Scotland. Their children are 
William J., Arthur J. (deceased), Flora M., 
Louis U, Charlotte V., Harold H. and Ver- 
nal O. (deceased.) In conclusion we would 
say that Mr. Hammer is yet a comparatively 
young man, and his successes, his present 
prominence, his manly vigor, well-directed en- 
ergy and broad stronghold in the confidence 
and esteem of his fellow citizens bespeak for 
him still more extended usefulness in the years 
to come. 



1 82 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



IRA CALL. 

The world judges the character of a com- 
munity by its representative citizens, and 
yields its admiration and respect to those 
whose works and actions constitute not only 
the prosperity and pride of every immediate 
locality and county but also of the state. 
Among the prominent men of Bannock 
county is Mr. Call, who has not only attained 
success in connection with the representative 
industrial activities of the section of his 
residence, but also in mercantile operations, 
in which he has manifested the qualities of a 
financier and business man, and who is every- 
where honored for his ability and for his ster- 
ling integrity. He is a true son of the West, 
having been born in Bountiful. Utah, on 
March 23, 1861, and being a resident of the 
state of Idaho since he was twenty years of 
age, being one of its pioneer cattleraisers and 
for an extended period of time connected 
with that business and with the carpenter 
trade. 

The Call family traces their lineage _ to 
an ancient English family, the American an- 
cestors of this branch coming to Massachu- 
setts Colony in 1636, and from that time its 
representatives have been prominent and 
active in many lines of the development of 
civilization in a wide range of country, and 
several places in the Rocky Mountain section 
bear their name, Call*s Fort in LJtah and 
Call's Landing in Arizona being the principal 
ones. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Call. 
Anson Call, was an early adherent to the 
Mormon faith and stood high in its councils 
and at his death, at the age of eighty-one 
years, he was first counsellor to the president 
of Davis stake. 

The parents of Ira Call were Anson V. 
and Charlotte (Holbrook) Call, natives of Ver- 
mont, who came to Utah in 1848. the paternal 



grandparents being Anson and Mary (Flint) 
Call, who were born, reared and married in 
the state of Vermont, where the}- were farm- 
ers until occurred their emigration. The pa- 
ternal great-grandparents were Cyril and 
Nancy Call, lifelong residents of Vermont, the 
father of our subject being for many years a 
successful teacher, but dying at the early age 
of thirty-five years. 

Coming of an ancestry so intelligent and 
distinguished, it will easily be seen that Ira 
Call gave diligent attention to the educational 
advantages he received at the schools of his 
native place, acquiring there the solid ele- 
ments of an excellent practical education 
which has since been supplemented by ob- 
servation and experience in dealing with 
men and affairs, and learning the trade of a 
carpenter, he became a resident of Chester- 
field, Idaho, in 1881. He built the pioneer 
store of that place, opening it for trade on Sep- 
tember 6. 1888. with a stock of general mer- 
chandise, then combining the vocation^ of 
carpentry and stockraising. and being pros- 
pered in his undertakings. In June. 1805. he 
uent to Mobile, Ala., on mission work, labor- 
ing two months. He resided at Chesterfield 
until 1898, when he made his home at Ban- 
croft, his first advent in this place, however, 
being in 1892, when he erected the pioneer 
store building of the town and became one of 
the founders and original proprietors of the 
place. He now owns 100 of the lots of the 
corporation, together with 140 acres of finely- 
located and valuable land, closely adjacent to 
the town, while the estate which is still his 
property in Chesterfield includes a fine stock 
farm of 360 acres. 

In 1898 Mr. Call established himself in 
the mercantile business at Bancroft and has 
since devoted his personal attention, wise care 
and discrimination to the development of this 
business, which has attained scope and im- 




IRA CALL. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



i85 



portance and consists of a large stock of gen- 
eral merchandise and the numerous other ar- 
ticles necessary to meet the necessities and 
comforts of the inhabitants of this section. 
The sagacity, tact, winning personality and 
business acumen of Mr. Call has placed him 
among the representative merchants of south- 
eastern Idaho. His financial enterprises are 
not confined to the operations already men- 
tioned, but are various, extending through- 
out the country in manifold forms, and, as 
an evidence of his shrewdness and practical 
ability, we would note that in nearly every 
case his investments are bringing him ample 
returns. 

It is but natural that a man of so marked 
intellectual vigor and executive ability 
should be solicited to accept public trusts of 
political importance, but, as his business has 
so largely occupied his time, he has never been 
anxious for political advancement, although 
once accepting the nomination by his party 
for county commissioner of this county. From 
his interest in education, however, he has 
served with great acceptability on the educa- 
tional boards of Bancroft and Chesterfield for 
the last thirteen years ; while fraternally he is 
a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, affiliating with the lodge at Soda 
Springs. 

Mr. Call was married at Salt Lake City, 
Utah, on October 28. 1880, with Miss Emma 
J. Barlow, also a native of Utah and a daugh- 
ter of Israel and Lu.cy (Heao) Barlow, na- 
tives respectively of Pennsylvania and Eng- 
land, who were among the distinctively early 
pioneers of Utah, coming thither with a Mor- 
mon caravan in the early fifties. Mr. and 
Mrs. Call have had eleven children: Ira A., 
who returned from a church mission at Phila- 
delphia, in January, 1903, and married with 
Miss Mary L. Hali on April 3d of the same 
year ; Hyrum, who married Ethel Hofine and 
is associated with his father in business : Wil- 



lard ; Christian ; Chloe J. ; Mary M. ; Joseph 
C. ; Elizabeth; Myrtle-; Lorin V. ; Emma 
Louella. Mr. Call was again married on Sep- 
tember 16, 1890, with Miss Fanny Loveland, 
also a native of Utah, being a daughter of 
Heber C. and Columbia F. (Call) Loveland, 
also early pioneers of Utah, and to this union 
have come six children : Charlotte ; Heber. 
deceased; Elzina F., deceased; Hazel; Mora 
and Lamonia. One of the most prominent 
and useful citizens of his section of the county. 
Mr. Call has the entire esteem and confidence 
of all who have the pleasure of his acquaint- 
ance, while in his elegant brick residence him- 
self and family dispense a true Western hospi- 
tality, as is fitting to a man of great geniality 
and unbounded public spirit. 

J. R. HAMMER. 

Another one of the enterprising and pro- 
gressive natives of the West comes before us 
when we attempt to review the life and activi- 
ties of Joseph R. Hammer, who is now engaged 
in diversified farming and in the raising of ex- 
cellent herds of horses and cattle in Bingham 
county, Idaho, where his finely located and pro- 
ductive ranch is situated about nine miles from 
Idaho Falls, in close proximity to the Wood- 
ville postoffice. He was born in Smithfield. 
Utah, on December 3, 1866, being a son of 
Austin and Sarah J. (Payne) Hammer, natives 
of Illinois and Utah, and for further informa- 
tion concerning them or his family history, we 
will refer the reader to the sketch of Austin 
Hammer, which appears on other pages of this 
work. In 189 1 Joseph R. Hammer accompanied 
his mother and family to Idaho and to this lo- 
cality, having attained manhood and acquired 
his education in Utah and becoming well versed 
in all the requirements and methods necessary 
to the conducting of agricultural and stock- 
raising pursuits. 

Immediately upon his arrival in Bingham 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



county he filed upon a homestead of 160 acres, 
and availed himself of the opportunities here 
presented in farming and stockraising. Like 
others of this section, he has developed his 
ranch from its primitive state, and is now the 
owner of a pleasant and valuable home, his es- 
tate comprising fifty acres of valuable land, 
and he was one of the originators of the Wood- 
ville Irrigation Canal, and was for three years 
president of the Mutual Association. 

In many ways, and in many directions, Mr. 
Hammer is a typical representative of the men 
of his place and period, his business operations 
bringing him into contact with many people by 
whom he is highly esteemed, and he has, by his 
skill, industry and business ability, demon- 
strated everj' form of agricultural possibilities 
of his section. In doing this he has brought to 
bear superior intelligence, and his success is 
amply deserved, while the result of his labors 
should be a stimulus to aspiring young farmers, 
for he arrived in Idaho only a comparatively 
short time ago, but with his push and energy 
he has shown what is capable of being ac- 
complished by any strong man of business abil- 
ity. 

On August 31, 1888, at Hooper, Utah, oc- 
curred the marriage ceremonies uniting Mr. 
Hammer and Miss Ina B. Wilson, a native of 
Utah and a daughter of Calvin C. and Emeline 
(Miller) Wilson, her parents being early pio- 
neers to Utah and devoted adherents to the 
Mormon church. The family circle of Mr. 
Hammer includes eight children : Geneva, 
Emeline, Maud, Sarah, Ora, Glenn, Ray H. 
and Edith. 

WILLIAM A. HAMMER. 

This gentleman has the distinction of being 
one of the original settlers of Woodville, and 
also one of the first to engage in the construc- 
tion of irrigation canals, without whose bene- 



ficial influence this section of country would al- 
ways have remained a desert, and he is prom- 
inent in this connection and has shown his ac- 
tive interest in every department of the com- 
munity from the time he made his home in the 
state. He is well deserving of recognition in 
this work from his conspicuous ability, con- 
scientious attention to duty and the serviceable 
regard for the interests of the community that 
have so highly distinguished him. 

Mr. Hammer was born on January II, 
1863, in Ogden, Utah, being a son of Austin 
and Sarah J. (Paine) Hammer, a sketch of 
whose interesting careers are preserved on 
other pages of this volume. Diligently pre- 
paring himself for the duties of life by active 
service in the farming occupations of the pa- 
rental home, and acquiring the fundamental 
principles of an education at the excellent pub- 
he schools contiguous thereto, at the age of 
twenty-one years Mr. Hammer engaged in 
business for himself as an agriculturist at 
Hooper, Utah, making his home at his present 
residence in 1889. It was then surrounded 
by a wide expanse of sagebrush wilderness, in 
marked contrast to its civilized appearance of 
today, and here he is the owner of ninety acres 
of land, which, under his skillful manipulation, 
has been made to "blossom as the rose," and 
here he is prosperously occupied in the care of 
excellent herds of horses, cattle and hogs, being 
a man who is held in esteem throughout the ex- 
tensive range of his acquaintance, and being - 
further a consistent member of the Mormon 
church. 

On March 31, 1884. Mr. Hammer was 
married at Hooper, Utah, with Miss Annie E. 
Meservy, who was born on February 17. 1866. 
at Franklin, Idaho, and a daughter of John and 
Mary J. (Whitaker) Meservy. early pioneers to 
LJtah, their original home in that state being 
located at Hooper. The family of Mr. and 
Mrs. Hammer consists of seven children, an- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA. COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



187 



other, Ethel, being deceased. The names of 
the survivors are : Laura, John, William, 
Austin, Annie, Clarence, Earl and Orville. 

HANS L. HANSEN. 

The Scandinavian element of our Western 
civilization is one of its most valuable constitu- 
ents, as its representatives have brought with 
them the hardy strength, the resolute purpose 
and the faithful and diligent industry so char- 
acteristic of their native land, and here they 
have, by their honesty and thrift, laid deeply 
the foundations of an almost universal success. 
This retrospect comes to our mind when con- 
sidering the useful life and activities of Hans 
L. Hansen, a native of Denmark, but now a 
prosperous farmer of Bingham county, Idaho, 
where his carefully improved home is located 
five miles northeast of Idaho Falls, being under 
good cultivation and from which its owner se- 
cures large annual crops. Mr. Hansen was 
born on July 27, 1846, being a son of Hans 
Larsen and his wife, Catherine Yensen, the 
parents, industrious and hard-working farmers 
of Schleswig, passing their entire lives in their 
native land. 

Their son, Hans L. Hansen, of this review, 
had little opportunity for other study or culture 
than that appertaining to the work of the farm, 
and at the early age of twelve years he started 
out to make his own way in the world by his 
own labors, and well has he accomplished the 
work. His first employment was in the service 
of the King of Denmark, in which he continued 
for some time and until he was married, on 
February 26, 1872, to Miss Maria Anderson, 
a daughter of Hans and Mettie (Christiansen) 
Anderson. About three years thereafter they 
emigrated with a Mormon contingent, coming 
to Cache Valley, Utah, where his Wife's people 
had been resident from 187 1, and where the 
father still resides, holding the position of high 



priest of the Mormon church, of which he has 
been a most consistent member for many years, 
the faithful and loving wife and mother dy- 
ing there in 1885. 

After a residence of eleven years in the 
Cache Valley, the superior advantages to- se- 
cure a home that were afforded in Bingham 
county, Idaho, induced Mr. Hansen to move 
thither, and he took up a homestead of 160 
acres of land, eligibly and conveniently situ- 
ated, five miles northeast of Idaho Falls, where 
he is rapidly forging to the front in the ranks 
of the successful ranchers and stockraisers of 
the country. Democratic in politics, Mr. Han- 
sen holds most intelligent and decided views in 
all matters of public policy, and he is greatly in- 
terested in all local events that have for their 
object the benefit of the people and the weal of 
the community. 

That he is considered a man of ability as 
well as of deep religious principle will be seen 
when it is said that he holds office in his church 
as an elder. Secure in the friendship and in 
the estimation of the representative men of the 
county and enjoying a prosperity that is sure 
to be cumulative as the years pass on, Mr. Han- 
sen has surely no reason to regret his far 
western travel over ocean, mountains and 
prairie. The children of the family are : Hans 
L., Charles, Mary C, Christian S., Ida E., Otto 
(deceased), Anna M. (deceased), Olivia (de- 
ceased), Amelia, Joseph A. (deceased), and Al- 
bert. 

FREDERICK C. HANSEN. 

F. C. Hansen, now the senior member of 
the solid commercial house of Hansen & 
Hughes, which is conducting a profitable 
merchandising business in the thriving young 
city of Montpelier, Idaho, is a native of the 
little kingdom of Denmark, where his birth oc- 
curred on November 28, 1856. he being a son 
of Hans Jorgesen and Mary E. (Christensen) 



t88 



PROGRESSH'E MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



Jorgensen. His father, who is a representative 
of a family that has been long established in 
Denmark, was a cooper by trade and occupa- 
tion, dying in 1856 and leaving his son an 
orphan at the age of twelve years. In conse- 
quence thereof the subject of this review re- 
ceived a very limited school education, having 
had to apply himself assiduously to labor after 
the death of his father. In 1879, at the age of 
twenty-three years, young Frederick emigrated 
to the United States, making his home first at 
Grand Island, Neb., being there engaged in the 
express or delivery business for one year and 
later in farming operations for the same period 
of time. He thereafter connected himself with 
railroading, and in this connection coming to 
Idaho in 1883 as a section foreman on the 
Oregon Short Line Railroad, and continuing to 
be thus' employed for sixteen busy years, there- 
after engaging in trade at Montpelier and con- 
tinuing in this branch of commercial endeavor 
until the present time. The business developed 
from a small and unpretentious affair to one of 
extent, keeping pace with the rapid progress 
of the growth of the city and the surrounding 
country, having a large patronage of intelligent 
and representative citizens, the stock consisting 
of furnishing goods, notions, groceries and all 
the necessary articles that concern the neces- 
sities or the pleasures o<f the people of this place 
and period. 

Mr. Hansen is truly a progressive citizen 
in the best sense of the term, holding a high 
position in the esteem of his fellow citizens and 
in the local lodge of the Freemasons, of which 
he has been the efficient master, and also its 
delegate to the grand lodge of the state. He 
is also identified with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, and has "passed the chairs" in 
that order, being held in distinctively high es- 
teem in both fraternal organizations, and ex- 
emplifying in his daily life their grand and 
beneficent principles. 



OLIVER C. HARMON. 

Among the intelligent and representative 
young ranchmen, whose energy, industry and 
persevering efforts are rapidly transforming 
the original wilderness of Bingham county, 
Idaho, into a thickly settled civilized commu- 
nity of wealth and importance, must be men- 
tioned Oliver C. Harmon, whose finely im- 
proved landed estate is located fourteen miles 
northeast of Idaho Falls. He was born on 
June 30, 1864, at Hoytsville, L T tah, a son of 
Oliver and Sarah (Rhoodeback) Harmon, his 
father being a native of Pennsylvania, where he 
attained maturity and followed farming until 
he crossed the plains with the Mormon bat- 
talion, in that service continuing for about 
eighteen months, thence coming in 1859 to 
Utah and locating in Salt Lake City, where oc- 
curred his marriage. Shortly after that event 
he removed to Hoytsville and engaged in farm- 
ing, pursuing that vocation until he came to 
Idaho, in 1894, and made his permanent home 
at Milo, Bingham county, where he died and 
was buried in 1900. He was a useful and con- 
scientious member of the Mormon church, 
holding at the time of his death the office of 
patriarch. 

Oliver C. Harmon received his education 
and was reared at Hoytsville in Summit county. 
Utah, and at the age of twenty-one years he 
engaged in farming for himself in that locality, 
where he was a successful farmer until 1890, 
when occurred his removal to Bingham county. 
Idaho, where he took up a homestead of 160 
acres, which is pleasantly and conveniently 
located fourteen miles northeast of Idaho 
Falls, and where he is now engaged in farming 
operations. He has been twice married : first, 
to Miss Lydia M. Newman, of Summit county, 
Utah, who died in 1891, at the age of twenty- 
six years, and was buried at the Willow Creek 
cemeterv, her two children being Lvdia and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



189 



Oliver. Again, on May 3, 1893, Mr. Harmon 
formed another matrimonial alliance, the bride 
being Mrs. John Cutler, formerly a Miss Huf- 
f acker, a native of Utah, and a daughter of 
Lewis A. Huffacker, and to this union have 
been born four children : Martha J., Mabel R., 
Ashel M. and Wendall Vernon. • The former 
husband of Mrs. Harmon was a pioneer of 
Bingham county, coming here in 1886. They 
had five children : John W., Sheldon P., Lewis 
A., Eva L. and Susan M. (deceased). 

Mr. Harmon is an intelligent observer of 
the progress and trend of events, having a 
marked and decided interest in the develop- 
ment of the section of the country where he 
has made his home, doing everything in. his 
power and by his energy to develop the re- 
sources, capabilities and the population of the 
county. As a useful citizen he has made his 
influence felt in every department of the life 
of the community, and he and his estimable 
wife have a large circle of friends who earn- 
estly wish them a still greater prosperity than 
they have already acquired. 

BERNICE RAWLINS HARRIS. 

Among the younger class of the representa- 
tive and progressive citizens of Fremont 
county is Bernice R. Harris, himself a son of 
the West,- since his bitth occurred on March 
6, 1867, at Pleasant Grove, Utah, where his 
parents, George H. A. and Sarah (Loader) 
Harris, were earl}' residents. For further 
information concerning his parents the reader 
is referred to the sketch of the honored father 
of Mr. Harris appearing on other pages of this 
volume. Bernice R. Harris was an industrious 
member of his father's family until he started 
on an independent life for himself at thirteen 
years of age, when he engaged in logging oper- 
ations until he came to Rexburg in 1884 with 
his father and brother. In it 



in a general merchandising business and at 
once at Salem took important standing in com- 
munity affairs and in public matters of a local 
character, being connected with his father in 
mercantile operations until February, 1903, 
when he purchased the father's interest of 
the rapidly increasing business. He gained the 
popular esteem and good will of the entire com- 
munity through his uniform courtesy, affabil- 
ity and correct understanding of the principles 
underlying- the proper carrying out of mercan- 
tile undertakings. As a Republican he devotes 
himself with energy and assiduity to the prop- 
agation of the principles and policies of that 
political organization, being appointed post- 
master of Salem postoffice on March 14, 1903. 
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints Mr. Harris is held in high esteem 
and he has rendered due and effective service 
in the ecclesiastical offices of teacher, elder, 
priest and high priest, and is now in the office 
as high counsellor of Fremont stake ; also as 
first assistant to the stake superintendent of 
Sunday schools. In all of the varied relations 
of social, domestic, civil and official life Mr. 
Harris has ever been found "duly qualified," his 
prompt, effective, but winning personality dis- 
patching business matters with rapidity, while 
at the same time those with whom he was asso- 
ciated became and remained his friends. He 
was united in matrimony at Logan Temple, 
Utah, on December 19, 1894, with Miss 
Martha Fogg, a native of Logan, daughter of 
James E. (born September 29, 1840) and 
Martha Ann (Woodard) Fogg. Her father 
was a prominent lumberman during his entire 
active life, dying on March 13, 1891, at the age 
of fifty years, while the mother passed from 
earth at Smithfield, Utah, in 1880, at the 
youthful age of thirty-two years. The family 
of Mr. and Mrs. Harris consists of four win- 
some children: Bernice E., born on Novem- 
ber 30, 1895; Martha L, born on September 



190 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



24, 1897; Luella, born on November 19, 1899, 
and Emily L.. born August 9, 1902. 

The family stands foremost in everything 
tending to the advancement of the interests of 
the people, being ever in the lead of activities 
in social and society life, and in their attractive 
home a cordial hospitality is ever extended to 
their numerous friends, who find it a place of 
rare enjoyment, while Mr. Harris stands as a 
man of high character, unblemished reputation 
and one of the best types of the younger gen- 
eration of the pioneers of Fremont county. 
Mrs. Harris is known throughout her entire 
range of acquaintances as a woman of gentle, 
winning personality, a "mother" in the truest 
sense, and as one who has endeared herself to 
her friends by the strongest bonds of love, as a 
member of the stake board of young ladies 
winning much honor. She is appreciated for 
her genuine worth and affectionate disposition, 
for with her to be known is to be loved, she 
rarely seeing' faults in others. 

C. R. J. HARRIS. 

Accounts of pioneer life are always en- 
dowed with interest to all sorts and condi- 
tions of people, and many of the thrilling ex- 
periences of the pioneer settlers, when re- 
lated by an. honest and competent historian, 
read more like romance than serious accounts 
of real life, hence the lives of the early settlers 
of any land, and more especially of the re- 
gions of the Great West, are full of interest to 
all and much more so to their descendants. In 
the life C. R. J. Harris he have an exempli- 
fication of the truth of these statements, for 
in his experiences as a pioneer settler in the 
Snake River Valley there is much that should 
be handed down to posterity in order to show 
the rugged conditions under which the 
foundations of civilization were laid even in 
Fremont county, Idaho, in the latter davs of 



the Nineteenth Century. He was born on De- 
cember o, 1858, at Pleasant Grove, Utah, a 
son of G. H. A. and Annie A. (Burriston) 
Harris, natives of England, and early settlers 
of Utah, where the father was a farmer at 
Pleasant Grove, later, in 1890, coming to 
Salem, Fremont county, Idaho, where he 
erected and conducted the first store and was 
commissioned the first postmaster. The 
mother died at Pleasant Grove in 1861, leav- 
ing- the subject of this review motherless at the 
tender age of three years. 

Mr. Harris commenced life on his own ac- 
count when but ten years old, working there- 
after at farming, the herding of cattle and 
sheep and at mining until the age of twenty- 
one, acquiring a large fund of valuable knowl- 
edge. He "tended bar" in Salt Lake City for 
a period of thirtv months, becoming so dis- 
gusted with the liquor business that, not- 
withstanding its large profits, he relinquished 
it and engaged in farming and mining. On 
December 13, 1883, he was one of the advance 
guard of the settlers of the Upper Snake 
River Valley, where he made a homestead 
claim of 160 acres of land at Salem, hauling 
the logs he used in building his house through 
snow from eighteen inches to two feet in 
depth, meanwhile living in his wagon-box, the 
wife often remaining over night alone with no 
one nearer than Rexburg, three miles away. 
He aided in making the first irrigating ditch, 
becoming later a director of the first water 
company, assisted in breaking up the first 
land filed for culture, and built the first 
fences of the town of Salem. He made 
his permanent home on his claim and at one 
time was out of flour. Going to Rexburg, he 
found that settlement contained only a limited 
supply of flour and. wishing to obtain fifty 
pounds, he could not purchase it himself, but 
had another man procure it for him. 

He had neither team nor wagon, having to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



I 9 L 



hire one to do his work. The first fence he 
built was a leaning one and one day when a 
man was driving past it with a long stick of 
timber projecting from his wagon, the timber 
struck the fence, while making a turn, knock- 
ing out a few pieces, which set the whole in 
motion and left the entire eighty rods flat on 
the ground. Sowing a crop of alfalfa, after 
the grass had attained a few inches in height, 
it turned to a yellowish rust-color and ceased 
to grow, so he raised no hay for his stock. 
When he attempted to raise grain, ground 
squirrels or prairie dogs ate and destroyed the 
full crop, keeping up this destruction for five 
years. To exterminate the animals, the people 
poured water in their holes, and as they came 
out would knock them over with clubs. 

Mr. Harris once had his team of horses 
stampede when the thermometer indicated 
thirty-five degrees below zero-. Accompanied 
by a brother, he started to recover them on 
foot, following them nearly forty miles, and 
until he was completely exhausted, nearly 
freezing to death as the result of falling into 
deep snow, keeping on, however, until he had 
scarce strength enough to keep an upright po- 
sition. At this junction, a friend on horseback 
came by, who caught the runaways, after go- 
ing six miles for them, for which kind act Mr. 
Harris offered to pay him all the money he 
possessed, eight dollars, which the friend re- 
fused to take. Such were some of the typical, 
every-day experiences of those who were the 
forerunners of civilization, even in the Snake 
River Valley. Pioneer existence, even here, 
required patience, heroism and a vigor of phys- 
ical health to combat the great privations ex- 
perienced; but it also cultivated and devel- 
oped brotherly kindness, toleration and a 
gentle and tender spirit of charity towards 
those who were in a worse condition. 

In political, religious, and civil life Mr. 
Harris has had prominence. He was one of 



the two voters of his precinct who were not 
carried away from the Republican party on 
the "free-silver" question, and he has most 
creditably served upon the board of county 
commissioners and also as a road supervisor. 
In the Church of Latter Day Saints he has 
rendered long and conspicuous service, being 
the superintendent of the Salem Sunday 
school from 1886 to 1898 and a member of the 
eighty-fourth quorum of Seventies for the 
last fourteen years, while, in June, 1897, he 
was on mission work in the northwestern 
states for over eighteen months, during this 
period being the president of the Anaconda 
(Mont.) conference for over a year, when 
he was incessantly in the field, traveling hun- 
dreds of miles on foot, baptizing eight persons 
into the church, and being often in peril of 
death. On one occasion he was followed by 
a man with a revolver who contemplated in- 
jury to Mr. Harris, for under his teaching the 
man's wife and children had espoused the 
Mormon faith and were to be baptized into 
the church. 

On December 2, 1881, was celebrated the 
marriage rites of Mr. Harris and Miss Mary 
C. Black, a native of Pleasant Grove, Utah, 
and a daughter of William G. and Mary 
(Bacon) Black, and of the thirteen children of 
her parents she is the eldest now living. 
Mr. and Mrs. Black are now residing in Bear 
Lake county, engaged in farming and stock- 
raising. Eight children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Harris : Annie Mary ; Cyrus 
Irving ; George William ; Myrtle Celestia ; 
Milton Chester; Clarence, deceased: Charles 
Henry; Zella Lorena. 

HIRAM F. HASKINS. 

A native of St. Lawrence county, N. Y., 
born there on March 10, 185 1, a son of Hiram 
and Angeline (Smith) Haskins, Mr. Hiram F. 



192 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Haskins, after a life passed in persistent and 
energetic activities, is now profitably engaged 
in ranching and in stockraising, the center of 
his industries being at the home ranch of 240 
acres, which is situated less than twelve miles 
northeast of Idaho Falls. His father was also 
a native of St. Lawrence county, and there he 
passed his life, being- engaged in working at his 
trade of mill-wright. A first-class mechanic, his 
services were much in demand, and he was the 
builder of several large mills. He was born 
on October 21, 1826. and died on August 19, 
1869, being a son of Jonathan Haskins. a life- 
long - farmer of the state of New York, and a 
descendant of English ancestry. The mother 
of Hiram F. Haskins was also a native of St. 
Lawrence county, N. Y., where she was born 
on July 2, 1831, and died on April 18, 1868. 
being a daughter of Leonard and May (Fry) 
Smith, and of her four children Hiram F. was 
the eldest. 

After a diligent attendance at the public 
schools of his native count)', the subject of this 
sketch learned the carpenter's trade with his 
father, and followed it in various parts of the 
country until he made his home on his present 
ranch in 1882. Leaving New York in 1876, 
he came to the Black Hills of Dakota, there 
uniting prospecting with his present work, 
thence coming to Denver and thirty months la- 
ter removing to Bingham county, Idaho, where 
he took up a homestead of 160 acres, to which 
he has since added eighty acres by a desert 
claim. For one year thereafter he worked for 
the Oregon Short Line Railroad as a carpen- 
ter, then fully turned his attention to farming 
and stockraising, principally devoting- his en- 
ergies, however, to the raising and care of 
sheep, of which he now runs a fine band, the 
Cotswold being his favorite breed. He has 
been very much interested in irrigation in con- 
nection with the Eagle Rock and Willow 
Creek Irrigation Companies. 



On December 12, 1881, Mr. Haskins was 
united in marriage with Miss Jennie M. Beam, 
a native of Iowa and a daughter of Thomas M. 
and Martha E. (Way) Beam, her father being a 
native of Ohio but at present residing at Swan 
Valley, Wyoming. The family of Mr. and 
Mrs. Haskins consisted of eleven children, five 
having died. Their names in order of birth 
are Ethel M., born on December 6. 1882; 
Charles F., born on January 24, 1884, died on 
February 26, 1892; Ada B. and Herbert H.. 
born on August 18. 1885, of whom Herbert 
died on June 4, 1886, and Ada on November 
\y, 1888; Martha E., born on May 14, 1887; 
Nellie R.. born on August 20, 1888; Sallie A., 
born on December 11, 1892; Harold, born on 
August 7, 1894; Flora I., born on November 
14, 1898; Stella F.. born on April 20, 1900. 
died on December 15, 1901. 

Mr. Haskins is one of the number of bright, 
progressive citizens that it is well for any com- 
munity to number among its active sons. He 
is greatly interested in all public matters of a 
local character and every good work which will 
benefit the community finds in him a hearty 
supporter, while in social circles he and his 
family are enjoying a fine reputation and have 
many friends. His success is a worthy one and 
it has been acquired by his own active talents 
and sterling ability. 

JOHN P. PORTER. 

Not only a pioneer of pioneers of Bingham 
county. Idaho, but also one who fully demon- 
strated his patriotism and loyalty to his coun- 
try by serving faithfully as a soldier in the 
great Civil war, and who is now pleasantly 
and prosperously located near Blackfoot, 
Idaho. John P. Porter is certainly entitled 
t<> something more than a mere mention in 
any volume treating- of the progressive and 
representative men of the state. He was born 




J. P. PORTER. 




MRS. J. P. PORTER. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



195 



on June 14, 1844, in the rough coal-mining 
county of Sullivan, Pa., being a son of 
Latney and Sophronia (Brown) Porter. The 
father, a son of William Porter, was born in 
1806, in the state of New York, and in early 
life came to Sullivan county, Pa., then 
thickly covered with forest, and. being an 
energetic and public-spirited individual, he 
was not only engaged in extensive farming 
and lumbering operations, but was prominent 
in the Whig and Republican parties of his 
place and period. The mother of our subject 
was a native of Massachusetts, and she is still 
living" in vigorous mental and physical health 
at the age of seventy-eight years, on the old 
Sullivan county homestead, being the mother 
of twelve children. 

John P. Porter was reared amid the primi- 
tive scenes and occupations connected with the 
establishment of civilization in the county of 
his birth, and was but sixteen years of age 
when the President's message, calling for 
volunteers to aid in the great struggle of the 
Civil war, flashed over the wires of the coun- 
try, and with patriotic fervor he at once en- 
listed, becoming a member of Company B, 
Fifty-eighth Infantry, serving three most 
momentous years in the historic Army of the 
Potomac, one year with the Eighteenth Army 
Corps, and being in many engagements and 
bloody battles, among them that historic one 
of Cold Harbor, and the bloody attack upon 
Petersburg, where his corps was the first in 
action and was also the first to plant the 
Union flag on Fort Harrison after its capture. 

In this engag-ement Mr. Porter was in the 
greatest danger of his whole military life. 
On June 24th, just at the close of the two hours' 
time in which the artillery were shelling the 
works at Petersburg, and while the troops 
were lying on the ground waiting for the sig- 
nal to advance, he heard a sound, and, look- 
ing up, saw that the Confederates had charged 



in force and were within twenty feet of him. 
In the struggle which ensued two Confeder- 
ates dropped dead at his head and one at his 
feet, but he escaped uninjured. 

After his honorable muster-out of service 
at the close of the war, Mr. Porter returned 
to Pennsylvania and there conducted farming 
and lumbering operations until 1869, when he 
made the first step in his westward course 
by going to Iowa, thirty months thereafter 
proceeding to Minnesota, where he remained 
one winter and then returned to Pennsylvania. 
Three years later he emigrated to Nebraska 
for one year's residence, becoming- a citizen 
of Saline for one year, and from that state 
went to Kansas and after two years started 
westward across the plains with an ox team 
and two cows, his destination being Wash- 
ington Territory. Upon arriving at the beau- 
tiful Blackfoot River in Idaho in July, 1880, 
he was so pleased with the place and its sur- 
roundings, and the opportunities presented, 
that he here took up a homestead of 160 acres, 
engaged in farming and stockraising, being 
the pioneer agriculturist in several depart- 
ments of that great industry, for he was the 
first to dig an irrigating ditch, the first to 
cultivate crops and he was among the very 
first to plant fruit trees on the west side of 
the Snake River. 

From the very date of his arrival at this 
place Mr. Porter has been a forceful factor in 
everything that tends to the development of 
this section of the county and has been, as a 
consequence of his energetic and discrimi- 
nating efforts, most highly prospered, also 
gaining and retaining the esteem and con- 
fidence of his associates and acquaintances. In 
the circles of the Republican party he is 
known as an energetic worker, and he is also 
prominently connected with the Grand Army 
of the Republic organization. 

On September 2, 1867, Mr. Porter married 



196 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



with Miss Martha J. Warburton, also a native 
of Sullivan county. Pa., and a daughter 
of John and Hannah (Mullen) Warburton, 
her father being a native of Liverpool, Eng- 
land, coming to Pennsylvania at the age of 
eleven years, there passing his entire subse- 
quent life as an energetic business operator 
and an active Republican politician. Mr. and 
Mrs. Porter had seven children, of whom Lil- 
lian E. and Walter E. are living, and the fol- 
lowing are deceased : Estella, who is buried in 
Pennsylvania ; America, who died in Iowa ; 
an infant who passed away in Pennsylvania : 
Minor, who died in Kansas; Lowell, who is 
buried at Blackfoot, Idaho. 

This memoir will be, perhaps, best com- 
pleted by giving a detailed account of some 
of the experiences in battle that were the lot 
of Mr. Porter during his service in the Civil 
war. They will speak most vividly to the 
people of the present generation of the perils 
encountered in the struggle to preserve the 
integrity of the Union and inculcate 'essais 
of patriotism. The first two years of Mr. Por- 
ter's military life were passed in Virginia and 
North Carolina. His regiment then moved 
north and participated in many bloody bat- 
tles and engagements, among them that of 
Cold Harbor, where they were encamped on 
the field. They landed at Fortress Monroe 
on the morning of the day when the Monitor 
and the Merrimac met in their historic en- 
counter. Going to Norfolk, they assisted in 
the capture of that city. Then they were at 
Suffolk, where they were quartered for the 
most part of the winter of 1862-3. In the 
spring of 1863 they were sent to Newbern and 
on to Washington, N. C, in this latter place 
passing the winter of 1863-4. Thev were as- 
signed to the Eighteenth Army Corps in the 
spring of 1864, joined General Butler, and 
were participants in the attack on Richmond 
which, on account of the dense fog, failed of 



success. On June 3. 1864. occurred the mo- 
mentous battle of Cold Harbor, in which they 
took effective part and Mr. Porter was in 
great danger. On June 3d, behind the Rebels' 
breastworks, at break of day a charge was 
made, and, after being captured twice by the 
enemv and three times by Northern forces. 
Mr. Porter was struck twice by bullets, once 
on the arm and once on the leg. but not 
severely injured by either ball. He laid un- 
der fire behind the works among the dead 
from morning until night with his head resting 
against one dead man's legs, lying across an- 
other body, while another's head pressed 
against his side. 

On the 14th of June he was again in 
Petersburg and on June 24th, while on picket 
duty, between Appomattox and the Waldon 
Railroad, the Rebel shells played on them for 
two hours and then the Confederates charged 
in force. Mr. Porter looking up from the 
trench discovered the Rebels within twenty 
feet of him. He fell back, fired his gun at< 
them, and in the struggle that ensued one 
man dropped dead across his feet, two 
Rebels dropped over the breastwork close by 
the head of Mr. Porter, and fired several 
shots so close to him that he could have 
pushed his finger into the muzzle of their 
puns. Later, Mr. Porter was sent to gather 
up prisoners and was detailed as guard in 
front of the breastworks. In climbing over 
the breastworks in fulfillment of this duty, 
then a very dangerous undertaking, he first 
put his canteen and haversack over, and. step- 
ping back a few paces, he made a running 
jump and landed safely on the other side, 
but at the spot where he went over many 
bullets struck. Landing in a field of grain, 
after lying for a few moments he crawled 
away through the grain and took up his out- 
post duty, which he safely carried out. On 
the last day of September, at Fort Harrison. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



197 



his brother, Miner F. Porter, was so severely 
injured by a shot that he died that evening 
On October 17, 1864, Mr. Porter was mus- 
tered out and returned home. Two more 
brothers, Charles and Daniel, were in service, 
making four gallant soldiers for the Union 
from this one family. 

GEORGE H. A. HARRIS. 

The worthy gentleman whose name stands 
at the head of this review has had a diversified 
and an eventful career, but by honest toil, in- 
dustry, economy and shrewd business sagacity, 
qualities which all must exercise in the present 
condition of society if they would win success, 
he is now in the possession of a reasonable 
competence. He has been essentially a pro- 
ducer of wealth by legitimate means, and such 
men as he are upbuilders of society and the sus- 
tainers of law, order and organized govern- 
ment, rather than the professional politicians 
who labor chiefly for their own advancement 
and the holding of official place. As the father 
of the promising and ■ prosperous town of 
Salem, Mr. Harris has an undoubted right to 
a representation in this volume of the progres- 
sive men of this section of Idaho. 

George Henry Abbott Harris was born in 
Devonshire, England, on December 7, 1830, 
the son of James and Eliza (Rawlins) Harris, 
natives of Cornwall, England, and numbered 
among the aggressive pioneers of Methodism 
in that section of the British Isles, the father, 
who was a carpenter by trade, being for many 
years, and until his death, a local preacher and 
a chaplain in the Wesleyan Methodist church, 
a man of deep religious strength of character 
and a sincere and convincing preacher.. His 
death took place when he was forty-nine years 
of age, and his talented and deeply devoted 
wife died of a broken heart six months later, 
having attained the same age. Strength of 



character was early manifested by Mr. Harris, 
since at the age of thirteen years he shipped 
as a sailor in the merchant marine service, sail- 
ing during the seven years he was on the ocean 
to nearly all of the commercial seaports of the 
world. 

Closing his maritime life in 1852, he 
straightway made his way westward to Utah, 
crossing the plains with one of the inevitable 
ox team companies. On his arrival in Utah he 
devoted himself first to fishing for a liveli- 
hood, then to peddling fish, thereafter becoming 
an itinerant seller of notions for some years, 
then, locating at Pleasant Grove in Utah 
county, he established a general store and was 
also a deputy recorder under Lucius N. Sco- 
ville, taking his pay for-services in all kinds of 
produce and "plunder," his mercantile stock 
being furnished by Mr. George A. Neal, the 
man whose driver he had been in the crossing 
of the plains. He also borrowed the money 
wherewith to purchase forty acres of land, and 
in these departments of activity Mr. Harris 
continued to operate with the aid of his sons 
until 1880, when the sons came to Salem. 
Idaho. Mr. Harris had been generous in mak- 
ing loans of money to supposedly honest people 
whom he considered friends, and he had great 
difficulty in securing any of it, much of it never 
having been repaid. 

In 1888 he came to Salem and located 160 
acres of land, of which two-thirds was laid out 
and plotted for the town of Salem, and here 
has since been his home. He soon commenced 
a mercantile business in an exceedingly small 
way in a building 8x10 feet in size, which soon 
developed into a large proportion and more 
ample quarters, and, with the needed assistance 
of his sons, it has attained great scope and im- 
portance, being one of the representative mer- 
cantile houses of Fremont county. Mr. Harris 
was vitally interested in and prominently con- 
nected with the establishment of schools and 



198 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



also in irrigation, giving of his time and en- 
ergies to the construction of the canals and 
ditches which bring the water to the thirsty 
fields of the county. Although a Democrat in 
political belief, on the establishment of Salem 
postoffice. in 1893, he was commissioned the 
first postmaster by President Harrison, and 
held the office with great acceptability for nine 
years, then resigning it in favor of his son 
Rolla, the present incumbent. And here we 
will mention that he was a member of the first 
militia company organized in Utah, holding the 
offices of adjutant under Major Vance and of 
post commissary. 

Inheriting the religious nature of his par- 
ents, Mr. Harris has ever dwelt upon the im- 
portant subjects connected with the problems 
of life, death and immortality, and now has in 
his possession a Bible which he purchased be- 
fore he was twelve years old with money given 
to him for the purchase of candy. A man of 
original ideas and strong mentality, he has 
ever been strong in the support of what ap- 
pealed to him as right, joining the Mormon 
church in 1849, and, to prove the truth of the 
Mormon doctrines, he compiled a compendium 
of the history of the church records on his ar- 
rival at Salem. He has held by ordination 
the offices of priest, elder and one of the Seven- 
ties. 

By his first marriage with Miss Ann E. 
Burreston, at Pleasant Grove. Utah, came five 
children to Mr. Harris : Eliza J., George H. 
B., Cyrus R. J., John W., Marion Desdemona. 
Mrs. Harris died on September 13, 1861. and 
Mr. Harris again married at Pleasant Grove 
with Miss Sarah Loader, on May 30, 1862, her 
children being: James L., Sarah E. and Amy 
C. (twins), Bernice R. and Darwin Rolla. By 
his third marriage to Miss Mariah Loader, a 
sister of the second wife and a widow with 
three children, Alexander R. White. Emma, 
married Samuel Radmall, James (deceased. 



killed by a falling rock), Mr. Harris is father 
to three children: Abner B., Carlos V. and 
Frank Loader. On the nth day of February, 
1904, the writer found the old gentleman of 
seventy-three years enjoying medium health 
and in possession of his old stamina and zeal, 
enjoying the climate of the Snake River Val- 
ley at his pleasant home at Salem. 

JOSHUA HARRIS. 

Among the scions of Welsh ancestry who 
have aided materially in developing the great 
Northwest of the United States and pushing- 
forward its progress and commercial, indus- 
trial and moral advancement, none is more 
worthy of regard for a usefid and productive 
life than is Joshua Harris, of Preston, Oneida 
county, Idaho, whose name is as familiar as 
household words in all the sections of the 
country in which he has lived and labored for 
half a century. He was bom on June 23, 
1848, in Glamorganshire, Wales, the son of 
Isaac and Esther (Barnum) Harris, also na- 
tives of that country. The father was a gar- 
dener in his native land and pursued his cheer- 
ing and artistic vocation there until his death. 

In 1853 the mother, having become a 
convert to the doctrines of the Mormon 
church, and ardently desiring to live among 
her chosen people, with her five children came 
to the United States and crossed the plains 
with a train of emigrants to Salt Lake. Soon 
after her arrival she took up her residence at 
Kaysville, in Davis county, Utah, and there her 
son Joshua grew to manhood and received his 
education. He worked on the farm and 
freighted until he was nineteen years old, then 
bought land near Kaysville and engaged in 
farming until April. 1877. At that time he 
sold out and moved to Fairview, Idaho, five 
miles west of Preston, being one of the first 
settlers of the neighborhood, which was just 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



beginning to be invaded by the army of con- 
quest and civilization. 

He found the conditions promising and 
engaged in farming and stockraising, remain- 
ing there until 1899, then moving to the 
ranch, which he purchased in 1890. and he 
now occupies and cultivates, it lying within the 
limits of the townsite of Preston. He rose to 
prominence and influence in public and church 
affairs at Fairview, giving attention to all 
means of improving the community and de- 
veloping its resources. At Preston he is oc- 
cupied in farming and in the stock industry, 
as he was at Fairview, and is prosperous and 
successful here as he was there. He has built 
a fine brick dwelling on his ranch and made it 
a model home. In 1902 he sold his property 
at Fairview and now gives his attention 
wholly to the interests at Preston, and to the 
work of the church, to which he has devoted 
a considerable part of his time an energy 
throughout his mature life. 

Mr. Harris was married on May 28, 1869, 
at Kaysville, Utah, to Miss Ann Whiteside, a 
native of Utah, a daughter of Lewis and 
Susan (Perkins) Whiteside, Pennsylvanians 
by nativity and members of old families of 
that state. Her parents came to Utah in the 
early fifties, being pioneers in the vicinity of 
Kaysville where they were among the first 
settlers. The father was a farmer and passed 
the rest of his days at Kaysville, where he died 
in March, 1899, and the mother still makes 
her home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Harris have had thirteen 
children : Susan Ann, wife of William R. 
Taylor; Esther E., wife of Hans Monson; 
Lovica, who died on January 22, 1879, aged 
seven years and eleven months ; Selina, wife 
of Alonzo Corebridge, who died on September 
20, 1898, aged twenty-two years and ten 
months ; William L. ; Joshua, who died on 
April 22, 1895, aged fifteen years; James AI- 



vin, Jabez M., Mary E., Ella, Myrtle, Laura 
B. and Edna'. The living sons are all mar- 
ried and have ranches near Fairview. 

MARTIN HARRIS. 

Perhaps there is no one in the whole of the 
Snake River Valley who is more familiar with 
that great problem of the West, irrigation, 
than is the worthy subject of this sketch, Mar- 
tin Harris, who for years has been connected 
with the building and operation of ditches and 
canals and as a representative citizen of Lewis- 
ville, Fremont county, Idaho, this memoir of 
him is inserted in this work. Mr. Harris was 
born on January 28, 1838, at Kirtland, Ohio, 
a son of Martin (born in May, 18 12, who was 
one of the three witnesses of The Book of 
Mormon) and Caroline (Young) Harris (a 
niece of President Young), born May 17, 18 16, 
both natives of Saratoga county, N. Y., the fa- 
ther, when a young man, coming to Kirtland, 
where he married. He was a soldier of the 
war of 18 12, and, after his residence in Ohio, 
in 1870, he came to Salt Lake City, three 
months later moving to the Cache Valley, and 
there, his health being poor, he did but little 
work, residing there, however, until his death 
at Clarkston, on July 10, 1875. The mother 
of Mr. Harris survived until 1888, when she 
died at Lewisville, Idaho, on January 16th of 
that year, aged seventy-two years. 

Martin Harris engaged in business for him- 
self at the age of twenty-one years as a rancher 
at Smithfield, Cache county, Utah. He was 
with Colonel Connor in 1863 at the Bear River 
fight, and hauled a load of wounded soldiers 
from the field and saw the Indian chief, Bear 
Hunter, shot. In 1881 and 1882 Mr. Harris 
was engaged in railroad construction work 
with A. S. Anderson, and, after various em- 
ployments for some years, he came to Lewis- 
ville, Idaho, and, on April 7, 1885, filed on a 



200 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



homestead claim of 160 acres of land, which he 
has since improved, irrigated and developed by 
his earnest and unremitting later and industry. 
This property he has largely given to his chil- 
dren, now retaining but forty acres for his own 
residence. Mr. Harris is an enthusiastic ad- 
mirer of the drama, for seventeen years in 
Cache county, Utah, being known as an actor 
of winning popularity, and was also a theatri- 
cal manager. He has appeared in different 
characters on the stage at Idaho Falls, and at 
other points in this section of Idaho, to the de- 
light and satisfaction of the audiences. 

In the irrigation movements of Fremont 
county Mr. Harris has been conspicuously ac- 
tive. He aided in the construction of the 
Parks and Lewisville Canal, the pioneer canal 
of this locality, taking the water for his fields 
from that for ten years, and serving as its 
watermaster for three years, being now con- 
nected with the Selk and Taylor Irrigation 
Canal Co., while he was formerly a director in 
the Poverty Flat Canal Co. He is now devot- 
ing his energies to the interests of the Globe 
Mercantile Co., of Chicago. 111., having been 
their representative since November, 1902, 
and he has been advanced to be their traveling 
agent. A Republican in politics, he was nomin- 
ated and elected coroner of the county in 1902, 
receiving the complimentary majority of 1,639 
votes at the election. A lifelong member of the 
Mormon church, he has ever been 'a zealous 
worker for its interests, and has very efficiently 
held the office of a Seventy since i860. 

By his first wife, Nancy A. Homer, a native 
of Illinois, Mr. Harris had these children : 
Martin H. (deceased), Nancy H. (deceased), 
Benjamin (deceased), Franklin W. (deceased), 
Russell, Sariah, Rosetta (deceased), Ella E. 
(deceased). Russel and Sariah are living. 
By his second wife, Mary Corbett, a native of 
Iowa, there were William H., Almira C, 
Lyman, Daniel, Nellie M. and John (all de- 



ceased) ; George B. (deceased) ; Samuel, Ed- 
ward, Emily J., Lyman L., living; by his third 
marriage, to Mary Ann Morton, he has four 
children, Elizabeth. Ida, John and Martin A. 

ARTHUR W. HART. 

Arthur W. Hart, of Preston, is a native of 
Bloomington, Bear Lake county, Idaho, born 
on October 16, 1869, a son of James H. and 
Sabina (Scheib) Hart, natives of London. 
England. The parents became Mormons 
about the year 1850, and emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1852. In 1864 they moved to the Bear 
Lake country and located on land near 
Bloomington where the father started a farm- 
ing industry and also at the same time began 
to establish himself in the practice of the law 
at Bloomington, that being his profession. 
He still resides on the homestead in Bear 
Lake county, being prominent and influential 
in church and political affairs in that section, 
and for further details and ancestral informa- 
tion the reader is referred to his personal 
sketch elsewhere in this volume. The son, 
Arthur W. Hart, was educated in the public 
schools of his native county, and at the acade- 
mies in Bear Lake county and at Logan. 
Utah, finishing with a complete academic 
course at the University of Utah where he 
was graduated in 1890. Before returning to 
his Idaho home, after leaving the university, 
he studied law in the office of his brother. 
Judge Charles H. Hart, of Logan, Utah, un- 
til he was called on a mission to German}', 
where he remained two years and a half 
actively engaged in church work and serving 
most of the time as president of the Stuttgart 
conference. He also traveled during this 
period through Switzerland and England. On 
his return to America he resumed the study 
of law, and in 1898 was admitted to practice in 
Idaho. In that year he moved to Preston 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



201 



where he soon rose to the first rank at the bar 
and has since that time easily maintained his 
position. In 1901 he was elected county at- 
torney of Oneida county on the Democratic 
ticket and filled the office with great ability, 
giving general satisfaction to the people and 
winning high commendation for himself. His 
equipment for his professional duties is 
thorough and complete. He is well grounded 
in the principles of the law, extensively read 
in the decisions of the courts, has a wide fund 
of general information, and is fortified with 
special acquisitions in many lines of mental 
and mechanical facility which he has gained 
by his own efforts industriously and judi- 
ciously applied, being, in addition to other 
things, an expert stenographer. In politics 
he is an ardent and unwavering Democrat, 
and has held a leading place in the councils of 
his party in two states. In Utah he was sec- 
retary of the executive committee of the Cache 
county Democratic central committee, and 
has been a member of the state central com- 
mittee of his party in Idaho for a number of 
years. He is interested in farming and owns 
about 500 acres of land lying in all directions 
out of Preston: He is also connected with a 
number of leading business enterprises in 
this state, particularly the work of several ir- 
rigation canal companies. In church rela- 
tions he has been very zealous and useful, 
serving as one of the high cousellors of Oneida 
Stake as superintendent of its Young Men's 
Mutual Improvement Association, and as sec- 
ond assistant superintendent of its Relig- 
gion Classes. On September 22, 1900, 
at Salt Lake City, he was married to Miss 
Ada D. Lowe, a native of Franklin in this 
state, the daughter of James G. and Eliza 
(Doney) Lowe, the father a native of Scot- 
land and the mother of England. The do- 
mestic shrine he thus set up has been sancti- 
fied by the birth of two - children, Arthur J. 



and Halo M. He is one of the promising and 
talented young men of the county with every 
prospect of an exalted and honorable career 
in professional and public life. . 

HANS C. S. HEGSTED. 

This industrious and prosperous citizen of 
Fremont county, Idaho, may be considered as 
one of the best representatives of the "self- 
made" man of his section, as from the early 
age of eleven years he has been the master of 
his own destiny and the supplier of his financial 
reinforcements. He was born on April 6, 1871, 
in Weber county, Utah, a son of Hans C. and 
Christina (Oleson) Hegsted, natives of Den- 
mark, who came to Utah on November 8, 1865, 
and in the spring of 1866 he built a residence 
on a lot and purchased ten acres of land at 
Huntsville, Weber county, Utah, on which the 
father was engaged in farming until the spring 
of 1877, when, selling his property, he removed 
to Harrisville, where he purchased a farm of 
twenty-five acres and resided until 1892, when 
he sold the place and came to Salem, Fremont 
county, Idaho, where he purchased 160 acres, 
on forty of which Hans C. S. now resides and 
which he purchased of his father, and he is 
now residing with his wife on a farm of five 
acres, which is owned and carried on by their 
son, John. 

As before stated, Hans C. S. Hegsted be- 
came the architect of his own fortune at the age 
of eleven years, at which time he engaged as a 
farm hand for a year at $10 a month, thereafter 
for nine months being employed on a farm in 
Gentile Valley, Idaho, hence removing to Black- 
foot, where he worked at ranch work, then en- 
gaging at Pocatello for the same man at dairy- 
ing, giving satisfaction by his industrious hab- 
its and understanding of the business. After a 
short visit to his parents he was employed vari- 
ously for four vears ; then coming to Lewisville, 



202 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



Fremont county, he only remained two months 
before he returned to his parents' home, there- 
after being employed by Barney White at Three 
Mile Creek in Box Elder county, Utah, until he 
married, on October 30, 1895, with Miss Mae 
Walker, a daughter of Daniel and Barbara 
(Thorn) Walker, who moved from their native 
state of Michigan to Utah in early life, there 
becoming acquainted, marrying and making 
their home until 1899, when they moved to St. 
Anthony and purchased a ranch of 160 acres, 
for which they paid $3,500. and on which they 
now reside engaged in farming and in the pros- 
perous raising of cattle. 

Subsequently to his marriage, Mr. Hegsted 
removed to the Snake River Valley, purchased 
forty acres of land from his father and filed on 
a homestead of 160 acres in the same year, 
which land he developed and farmed for two 
years, thereafter becoming the foreman of the 
Martin Patrie ranch of 1,400 acres, supervis- 
ing the labors of seven men in irrigation and 
the raising of hay for two years, hence coming 
to Rexburg, where he was employed by the 
Consolidated Implement Co., and in the service 
of that company and its successor, the Consoli- 
dated Wagon and Machine Co., he has since re- 
mained, being numbered among their valued 
and confidential employes. 

In the Mormon church Mr. Hegsted holds 
the office of elder and, since 1893, he has been 
both teacher, assistant and superintendent of 
the Sunday school. He held the office of con- 
stable of Rexburg from 1896 to 1898, being 
elected as a Democrat. Two winsome children 
have joined the family of Mr. and Mrs. Heg- 
sted, Mary W. and Lila. In the varied rela- 
tions of social, domestic and neighborhood life 
the family is highly appreciated, and Mr. Heg- 
sted is known as an active, intelligent and in- 
dustrious citizen, standing well in the estima- 
tion of the entire community and doing his 
part to advance its welfare. 



CURTIS GALLOWAY. 

An early pioneer of the West, since his 
birth occurred in California on August 9. 
1859, and all of his life having been passed 
amid the early scenes of frontier existence 
in the land of the West. Curtis Galloway was 
long an estimable citizen and a representative 
agriculturist of near Shelley. Bingham 
county. Idaho, which county was his resi- 
dence from 1889 until his death in 1902. The 
trials which the family had after coming to 
Idaho were many and their privations great. 

Mr. Gallowav was a son of Charles W. 
and Annie (Cutter) Galloway, natives of 
Pennsylvania, his grandfather. John Gallo- 
way, also a native of that state, being a de- 
scendant of early Scotch emigrants who for 
several generations from the early Colonial 
period were domiciled in that state. Charles 
W. Galloway became identified with the 
Mormon church and joined the migration to 
Utah in 1855, remaining, there until 1859, 
when the family home was made in California. 
From thence returning in 1861 to Utah, he 
located as an agriculturist at Malad. where 
his death occurred in 1879, at the age of 
fifty-three years. He was a man held in 
high regard and a member of the Seventies of 
the Mormon church. His estimable wife long 
survived him, dying on the homestead at 
Malad on August 28, 1895, being the mother 
of ten children. 

Mr. Curtis Galloway made good use of 
the limited advantages for education which 
came to him in his youth, his diligence and 
abilities enabling him to make good progress. 
Entering with zeal into the pursuits con- 
nected with agriculture in Utah, when he 
was twenty-nine years of age he commenced 
his individual life as a farmer. Faithful to 
all of the interests of life, he labored as- 
siduouslv. husbanded his resources, and in 




CURTIS GALLOWAY. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



20S 



1889 came to Bingham county, Idaho, and 
filed on a homestead claim of 160 acres near 
Woodville, and with all the strength of his 
earnest nature engaged in its development. 
Previously to this, at Ma'nti, Utah, on No- 
vember 7, 1 888, he had taken to wife Miss 
Harriet Ann Rowley, a native of Utah, and 
a daughter of John and Jane (Paul) Rowley, 
early Mormon immigrants into Utah. In 
1894, having an advantageous opportunity, 
Mr. Galloway disposed of his homestead and 
purchased the place of fifty-eight acres at 
Shelley, where he continued to be diligently 
employed in diversified farming until his 
death, and acquired a competency, being 
known amongst the people as possessing a 
sterling integrity, a most courteous kindness 
and a great consideration for others, com- 
bined with untiring energy, uncompromising 
honest}^ and religious devotion, and at the 
time of his death he was holding the position 
of counsellor to the bishop. He was also a 
great worker in the Sunday school, being a 
teacher therein for many years. 

'Mr. and Mrs. Galloway were parents of 
seven children, George C. ; William; Anna M., 
deceased; Lehi and Nephi, twins; Hugh and 
Joseph M., deceased, and Charles Wesley. 
Mr. Galloway in politics was a sterling Re- 
publican, but not an officeseeker. In every- 
thing bearing upon the agriculture of his 
county he gave an intelligent consideration, 
being thoroughly versed in all the labors and 
operations which bring good results in all 
practical fields of endeavor. All in all, he 
was a gentleman of great personal popularity, 
a generous neighbor, a kind husband and a 
venerated and indulgent father. He passed 
away from earth on November 19, 1902. 
During his illness, which lasted six weeks, 
his thoughts were almost always of the Lord, 
and His workings. Realizing that death was 
near, he expressed his desire that the Lord's 



will should be done, and passed to the great 
beyond, where his good works will continue. 

HON. JAMES H. HART. 

History does not always make just and 
adequate return to the souls which have 
helped to create it. It is often arbitrary, 
whimsical and partial, celebrating as heroes 
mere opportunists and letting the pioneers, the 
real crusaders, go by unclaimed, unhoiiored. 
It is the province of this compilation to leave 
the speculations of historical disquisitions and 
to preserve the 'biographical features of the 
life careers of those who have, by their able 
endeavors and progressive connection with 
the development of any line, civil, professional 
or industrial, of the advancement of the com- 
munity of their residence, rendered themselves 
prominent, active, or beneficial. Most in- 
timately connected with the history of Bear 
Lake county, Idaho, has been the gentleman 
whom we now have under consideration, Hon. 
James H. Hart, of Bloomington, who has 
most capably held the highly important office of 
probate judge of Bear Lake county, in which 
he rendered most satisfactory service by his 
erudition, dignity, courtesy and marked spirit 
of equity. 

Judge James H. Hart was born in Abing- 
ford, Huntingtonshire, England, on June 29. 
1825, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Mar- 
riott) Hart, descending from ancestors whose 
lineage runs back unbroken through many 
generations of active usefulness in his native 
land, his paternal grandfather, John Hart, be- 
ing a native of the same county with himself 
and where his father was also born. Thomas 
Hart was the third in a family of eight chil- 
dren and engaged in the vocation of a builder 
for his life work, and, after performing most 
creditable labors in his chosen profession, and 
after attending with faithfulness to his duties 



206 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



as parish clerk and sexton for over half a 
century, his remains now repose in the old- 
time cemetery at Abingford, side by side with 
the mother of Judge Hart, who long ago 
passed to the Great Beyond. 

In this religious atmosphere Judge Hart 
attained maturity, acquiring the elements of 
a solid literary education in the parish schools 
and supplementing this instruction in the 
full course of stenography, following this as a 
profession for some time. A man beyond the 
ordinary in reasoning powers and mental en- 
dowment, James Hart was early convinced 
of the truthfulness of the religious doctrines 
of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and be- 
came a member of that body when he was 
twenty-two years old, later being called by 
the church to fill important missions in Lon- 
don, Birmingham, the Island of Jersey, Ger- 
many and in several departments of the 
church established in France, notable among 
them being St. Malo, Paris and Havre, his 
efforts receiving attention and securing large 
additions to the members of the faithful. 
From France he was transferred to St. Louis, 
Mo., in 1857, in which city he was prominent 
in church activities and most capably per- 
formed the onerous duties of managing editor 
of the newspaper publication entitled St. 
Louis Luminary, in addition to these duties 
diligently working at carpentry. From St. 
Louis in 1857 he was placed in charge of an 
ox train of Mormon emigrants en route for 
Salt Lake City, and brought them safely 
through to their destination, arriving there on 
October gth of the same year. 

Remaining in Salt Lake City and vicinity, 
engaged in various occupations until 1864, 
Judge Hart then made his home in the new 
town of Bloomington, Idaho, where he be- 
came a worker in wood, being a carpenter 
and also making all the doors and tables of 
the place. He was also commissioned as the 



first postmaster of Bloomington, holding the 
position for seven years, was chosen and 
served as a popular justice of the peace, and 
in 1870 he was nominated and elected judge 
of probate of the county, discharging the im- 
portant functions of the office with great ac- 
ceptability for the term of four years and 
thereafter representing the people of his dis- 
trict in the lower house of the state Legis- 
lature for six consecutive years, and later, in 
1900, being nominated again, as the candi- 
date of the Democratic party, for his former 
judicial office, judge of probate, and receiv- 
ing a flattering endorsement and election at 
the polls. This term of office expired on 
January 10, 1903. For the past twenty years 
Judge Hart has practiced the legal profession 
at Paris, and occupies a leading and promi- 
nent position among the members of the 
bench and bar, having manv friends and 
being noted for his constancy to his clients, 
his comprehensive grasp and presentation of 
the merits of his cases before the courts, and 
the affable courtesy of his manner. 

Always deeply devoted to the interests of 
the Church of Latter Day Saints, Judge Hart 
has from the first held official position therein, 
rendering also distinguished service for n 
long term of years as one of the stake presi- 
dency, being in this connection the superintend- 
ent and manager in the construction of the 
Fielding Academy of Paris. 

Miss Emily Ellingham, a native of Hert- 
fordshire, England, and Judge Hart were 
united in matrimony in the city of London in 
1852. She was the daughter of Thomas ami 
Ann Ellingham, and of this union there is but 
one surviving child, James Ellingham Hart, 
now serving in his second term of four years 
as auditor and recorder of Bear Lake count}'. 
By his second wife, Sabina Schieb. to whom 
be was united in 1862, lie had nine children, 
of whom seven are now Irving'. The oldest. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



207 



Charles H., is serving his second term as 
judge of the First judicial district of Utah. 
The others are Alice C, who married Anson 
Osmond, has seven children and lives ' in 
Bloomington; Eugene S., a popular teacher 
of Fremont county; Arthur W., an attorney 
at Preston, Idaho. Both of the last named 
have performed' missionary service, the first 
in Missouri, the latter in Germany. Alfred 
A., of Bloomington, a graduate of the Agri- 
cultural College of Utah, has recently per- 
formed a mission of two years in Wisconsin ; 
Hermoine, a graduate of the Agricultural Col- 
lege of Utah, is a teacher at St. Charles ; 
Rosina, now Mrs. Ivan Woodward, of Frank- 
lin, Idaho ; the family includes also one 
adopted son, Henry J. Hart, a carpenter, of 
Montpelier, Idaho. 

To sum up, there is no one individual 
throughout the whole extent of southern 
Idaho who has more completely lived up to 
the high standing of his ideals than has Judg'e 
Hart, and it stands in evidence, without an 
attempt at contradiction, that no man has 
filled important functions with greater fidelity, 
or ever discharged his duties as a citizen or 
church member with a clearer perception of 
their requirements or with a nobler result. 

LORENZO L. HATCH. 

Postmaster of the town of Franklin, bishop 
of the Franklin ward in the Mormon church, 
active and influential in all matters of gen- 
eral public interest, prosperous and progres- 
sive as a farmer and stockgrower, Lorenzo L. 
Hatch is one of the leading men of southern 
Idaho, and has earned his supremacy by a 
steadily continued and faithful service of his 
section of the state in almost every line of 
useful and productive energy. He is a native 
of Lehi, Utah, born on Christmas day, 185 1, 
the son of Lorenzo H. and Sylvia (Eastman) 



Hatch, both of whom were born and reared 
in Vermont. 

The parents embraced the Mormon faith 
in their native state, going from there to 
Nauvoo, 111., when that was the seat of central 
power in the church. From there the father 
was sent on a mission to the Eastern states, 
on which he was absent at the time of the 
assassination of the Prophet Joseph Smith. 
In 1846 they moved with the great body of 
the church to Council Bluffs and to Winter 
Quarters, where they wintered, and also lin- 
gered for a time after the first companies had 
started over the plains to the new dominion 
which was to be established in the farther 
West. The mother crossed over to Utah in 
1848, and the father in 1850. and they were 
married at Salt Lake City in March, 185 1. 

Soon after they moved to Lehi and went 
to farming, the father also working at his 
trade as a carpenter. His mechanical skill 
was in great demand as the town was grow- 
ing rapidly, and there was urgent need of 
dwellings for its increasing population. In 
1863 he was called by President Brigham 
Young to preside as bishop over the Franklin 
ward of the church as a successor to Preston 
Thomas, and received an allotment of land at 
Franklin. In the spring of that year he made 
his residence in that settlement, and during 
the ensuing autumn he moved his family to 
this region, and here they all lived until 1877 
and some of the children are still residing in 
the neighborhood. 

Franklin was, at the time, like Lehi in 
Utah, "on the boom"- and houses were in 
great demand. Bishop Hatch found it imper- 
ative, as well as profitable, to hire help to 
work his farm until his sons were able to take 
charge of it, that he might devote his energies 
to his trade, and thus he materially aided in 
building up the town and in making homes 
for its people. He held the position of bishop 



2o8 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE,, 



until 1877, when he was called to assist in 
colonizing Arizona and New Mexico. He 
stopped for purposes of preparation at St. 
George, Utah, for a year and then went to 
his new field of operations with high hopes 
for the success of the enterprise. In these 
he was not disappointed. The president of 
the state established headquarters at Wood- 
ruff, Ariz., and called Mr. Hatch to be one 
of his counsellors. The organization was 
completed and the work was pushed with 
vigor and industry. He remained in the field 
until the spring of 1900, when he returned to 
Utah and took up his residence at Logan, 
where he is now living. 

The son, Lorenzo L. Hatch, was twelve 
years old when the family moved to Franklin. 
At this place he reached man's estate and was 
educated, finishing his school education at the 
Logan, Utah, high school. He was employed 
on his father's farm for several years and 
under his father's instructions also learned the 
trade of carpenter. While he remained at 
home he worked at his trade in the winter 
and gave his attention in summer to farming. 

When his father was called on the coloniz- 
ing mission he became his successor as the 
bishop of Franklin ward, and also continued 
to manage the home farm. Since 1881 he 
has been farming for himself, having bought 
land some years before in this vicinity. He 
has a comfortable dwelling and all other 
needed buildings, a well-cultivated farm and 
all the appointments of a very desirable home, 
and. as this is located one block from the 
center of the town, he is very conveniently 
located in the midst of his ward. During the 
first year of his bishopric he was without 
counsellors, but he was ordained on May 2, 
1878, and at once appointed counsellors, a 
very necessary proceeding, as the ward covers 
an area of four by six miles and contains a 
population of nearly 1.000 persons, 700 of 



whom are communicants of the church. The 
ward meeting house was built as early as 
1865. but it is yet a pleasing and imposing 
structure, built of stone and well furnished 
for its proper use. The most cherished 
memories of the pioneers of the region cluster 
around it and it is held in the most sacred 
regard by all its habitues. In 1884 he was 
called on a mission to England and during 
his absence of two years one of his counsellors 
presided over the ward. 

Mr. Hatch has been as enterprising and 
progressive in business as he has been faith- 
ful in the work of the church. In 1897 he 
went into the sheep industry in partnership 
with two of his brothers and in this thev are 
still actively engaged. He was a stockholder 
and director in the Franklin Cooperative 
store until it became the Oneida Mercantile 
Union, and he occupied the same relation to 
that enterprise until the business was sold. 
In politics he is an earnest Republican, very 
active in the service of his party. He has 
been the postmaster at Franklin since June. 
1897, and has given its patrons excellent 
service. 

On December 1, 1873, at Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Hatch was united in marriage with Miss 
Annie Scarborough, a native of England. 
They have had born to them ten children, Lo- 
renzo F., Delia S.. Ina E., Arta B. (de- 
ceased), Blanche. Hezekiah J., Unita, Leah, 
Aura C. and Catherine C. 

ALMA HAYES. 

Numbered among the leading and prosper- 
ous agriculturists of southeastern Idaho, where 
his finely improved and valuable ranch of 420 
acres is located in close proximity to the post- 
office of Georgetown in Bear Lake county, 
which is his address. Alma Hayes is now enjoy- 
ing the prosperity and comfortable conditions 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



209 



which the intermountain section of the Great 
West offers to all who seek them with the same 
faithfulness, attention and determinate industry 
which Mr. Hayes has devoted to' that object. 
The constancy, patience and heroism of those 
who settled on the new lands of this part of the 
west in the early days, have never been sur- 
passed in the settlement of an}' portion of the 
country, and it is a worth}' act to record then 
experiences, so that coming generations may 
know something of those who labored that oth- 
ers might enjoy, who developed that their chil- 
dren might have an easier life than fell to their 
lot. 

Mr. Hayes was born in Nauvoo, 111., on 
January 15, 1846, a son of Thomas and Pollv 
(Hess) Hayes, his parents both dying at Mt. 
Pisgah when Mr. Hayes was very young, their 
deaths occurring through the persecutions 
which the Mormon people received. Mr. Hayes 
came with strangers to Utah in one of the earl- 
iest battalions, with them locating in Farming- 
ton when it was in its first crude stages of set- 
tlement, and growing to manhood among the 
vicissitudes, trials and privations which were 
the common lot of the new adventurers in these 
strange lands. The progress of the years has 
changed all things, the sunlight of prosperity 
now shines where ill-omened hunger, savage 
beasts and hostile Indians were not infrequent 
visitors, and the trials of the past are held in 
memory as only a dark vision of the night. 

Mr. Hayes well knows how the early pio- 
neers persevered in their labors of founding a 
state under most unpromising conditions, and 
he came to manhood well fitted to contest with 
nature and to conquer in the fight. At an early 
age he was taught to work and was employed 
as a herder and as a laborer on the farm until 
he was eighteen years of age. Then came the 
troublous times of the Blackhawk war in 1865 
and Mr. Hayes joined the ranks of the forces 
battling against the Indians. After the war 



he turned his attention to ranching, and on No- 
vember 9, 1867, he was united in marriage with 
Miss Ann Selina Thomas, a native of Missouri, 
and a daughter of Robert and Catherine (Lew- 
is) Thomas, who emigrated from England and 
made their permanent home at Farmington, 
where, after long lives of usefulness and piety 
they died, the father in 1896 and the mother in 
1899. 

After his marriage Mr. Hayes established 
his home in Morgan county, Utah, and there 
resided for about six years, when, in 1874, he 
came to his present location and was so pleased 
with the country that he determined that this 
should be his home, and he has since wrought 
well in the formation and building up of the 
prosperity everywhere visible on his large, es- 
tate, which is under most excellent improve- 
ment, 100 acres being devoted to general farm- 
ing, as it is under fine irrigation, the rest of 
the land being utilized as the grazing ground 
of a splendid band of superior cattle. 

Surely he has no cause for regret in the 
choice of his location or in his financial suc- 
cess; he has been prominent in all public af- 
fairs, has served as watermaster for a long 
term of years, and has held many offices in the 
church, among them that of teacher of the 
ward and counsellor to the bishop. Eight of 
his children are living, Mary E., John R., Alma 
H. Catherine, Alice L., Margaret, Harriet A. 
and Esther. The ones who have been called 
from earth are Mary J., Edith, David and Rob- 
ert. 

NORMAN N. HAYES. 

An historic character from the fact of his 
being the third child born in the township of 
Georgetown, Bear Lake county, Idaho, and a 
representative man of the people from the push 
and energy Avhich have characterized his ef- 
forts, Norman Nephi Hayes, the progressive 
ranchman of Georgetown, well deserves a place 



2IO 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



in this volume devoted to the progressive men 
of this section of the state. Mr. Hayes was 
born in the township where he now resides, on 
August 23, 1875, a son of Nephi and Eliza 
(Wright) Hayes. His father, who was a pio- 
neer settler of Utah, was born in Pennsylvania 
on February 15, 1843, and. after many years 
of life in Utah, he became one of the first to 
make his residence in Georgetown, Idaho, de- 
voting his time and energies to the development 
of the land he there chose for his home, being 
prospered in his undertakings and enjoying the 
reputation of being a skillful farmer and an 
excellent judge and raiser of stock. 

Under the competent instruction of his fa- 
ther, Norman N. Hayes attained a full knowl- 
edge of the laws and methods comprising the 
secrets of success in conducting agricultural and 
stockraising operations in this portion of the 
intermountain region of the West, and early 
gave promise of becoming a successful operator 
in these fields. He acquired his literary educa- 
tion at the Davis Stake Academy, from which 
he was duly graduated, thereafter turning his 
attention to mercantile pursuits for a period 
of time, after which employment he returned to 
the paternal ranch and was associated with his 
father in the conducting of its affairs until 1900, 
when, with his brother, Wilford B. Hayes, he 
formed a business alliance, the brothers pur- 
chasing the home ranch consisting of 320 acres 
of finely located and fertile land, under a high 
state of improvement and having an effective 
supply of water. Since that time the brothers 
have been associated as farmers and as stock- 
growers, in this line making a specialty of sheep. 
of which they have produced a fine herd, now 
owning 2,000. Intelligence, care and discrim- 
inating industry are shown in their methods of 
business and everything connected with the 
ranch is up-to-date, modern and progressive. 
They have one of the most valuable estates of 
the section and are meeting with a prosperity 



which is truly well deserved, and both enjoy a 
high degree of popularity. 

On September 29, 1897. the subject of this 
review wedded with Miss Ada Hoff, a daugh- 
ter of John and Magdalena (Bechtel) Hoff, na- 
tives of Pennsylvania and Germany respec- 
tively, who have maintained their home in 
Georgetown from the founding of the settle- 
ment, being considered among its most useful 
and valued people. Mrs. Hayes was born in 
Georgetown on October 16, 1875. being only 
about two months younger than her husband, 
their acquaintance dating from childhood, con- 
tinuing as schoolmates and ultimately extend- 
ing to matrimony. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have 
three winsome children. Leland Norman, born 
July 12, 1898. Virginia, born March 13, 1901, 
and Wesley Reed, born February 12. 1902. 
In the church, as in the community. Mr. Hayes 
stands high. He has given effective mission 
service for two years in the Eastern states and 
filled various church offices with ability. 

W. ADOLPH HEATH. 

.Among the native sons of the West who 
are energetically engaged in various business 
activities connected with the development of 
Bingham county, Idaho, and this section of 
the state, we must not fail to mention Mr. 
\Y. Adolph Heath, whose labors are steadily 
contributing to the welfare of the community, 
as his life has been a busy and useful one, 
furnishing an example of honorable effort, 
steadfast purpose and business integrity. He 
was born in Davis county. Utah, on Novem- 
ber 18, 1861. a son of John R. and Mrs. Caro- 
line (Grove) Heath; and for details of the 
genealogy and family history we would re- 
fer the reader to the biographical sketch of his 
parents, which appears on cither pages of 
this volume. 

Mr. Heath remained at the parental home 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



211 



until he had arrived at the age of eighteen 
years, when the natural advantages of Bing- 
ham county, Idaho, attracted his attention 
and he removed thither, filing a homestead 
claim on 160 acres eighteen miles east of 
Idaho Falls, where he has since been identified 
with farming, having made great improve- 
ments and developing a home that shows the 
care, taste and thrift of the owner, also en- 
gaging in stockraising, to which he has de- 
voted quite a share of attention, also setting 
out and developing a fine orchard of superior 
varieties of fruit, which clearly demonstrate 
Idaho's capabilities of production in this line 
of her resources. 

Mr. Heath was extremely fortunate in his 
location, as he has the finest building rock 
upon his land to be found in a wide extent 
of territory, and he has here developed a 
quarry, which is of large extent, capable of 
supplying all demands for rock for a long 
term of years, it being the best adapted for 
the various purposes for which it is required 
of any obtainable in this section. He is a 
sterling Democrat, and gives liberally of his 
time and services to the support of the candi- 
dates of his party in its various political cam- 
paigns. On September 14, 1884, occurred 
the marriage ceremonies uniting Miss Mar- 
garet A. Davies with Mr. Heath, she being 
the daughter of the venerable pioneer, Jona- 
than Davies, of whom a sketch appears on 
other pages of this w r ork. Mr. and Mrs.' 
Heath have six children, Grover D., Goldie, 
Beatrice, Melva, Albert and Hannah. 

JOSIAH HENDRICKS. 

Born on September 25, 1863, in Logan, 
Cache county, Utah, the son of Josiah and 
Sarah (Potts) Hendricks, the gentleman 
whose name stands at the head of this re- 
view is descended from old-time and prominent 



families of the Southern states, his father, 
who was a native of Kentucky, serving in the 
great Civil war as a private soldier of the 
Confederacy, and thereafter becoming a 
pioneer of Utah, coming to the state prior to 
his military service and marrying in i860 at 
Salt Lake City. Returning to Utah after the 
close of the war, he 'made his home on the 200- 
acre ranch he had purchased from the govern- 
ment in the vicinity of Logan and there con- 
ducted farming operations until his death, at 
the age of seventy- four years, on January 1, 
1894 ; the mother is still residing at Logan, 
having accomplished sixty-five years of life. 

Early acquiring habits of industry and 
thrift, and becoming familiar with all depart- 
ments of agriculture as conducted in Utah, at 
the age of twenty years Josiah Hendricks of this 
paper engaged in agriculture, and this, in con- 
nection with railroad construction work, fully 
occupied his time for twenty years in Utah. 
In 1882 he assisted Bishop Thomas E. Ricks 
in his work of moving settlers to the Snake 
River Valley of Idaho, supplying both horse 
and ox teams for this purpose, two years after 
his arrival at Rexburg taking up a homestead 
himself of 160 acres of land, where is now his 
home and which is the center of his diversified 
farming and cattleraising operations. In the 
development of this property he experienced all 
of the evil conditions which confronted the set- 
tlers, thick swarms of mosquitoes nearly ren- 
dering life unendurable, the necessity of im- 
mense labor in fetching water to the sage- 
brush and cactus-covered desert before fertility 
could be evolved therefrom, the pests of squir- 
rels and rabbits, which devastated the first 
growing crops of the first year of culture. 

These and other discouragements were 
fearlessly met and overcome, however, until 
now the land smiles under its burden of crops 
like the goddess of prosperity. Mr. Hendricks 
personally worked on all of the pioneer irri- 



212 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



gating ditches and canals of his locality and is 
now a stockholder in the Consolidated Farm- 
ers' Canal Co. In 1882 Mr. Hendricks was or- 
dained a deacon in the Church of Latter Day 
Saints, holding the office for two years, and in 
1896 he was appointed a counsellor of the 
Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society 
and still retains this appointment, faithfully at- 
tending to its important duties, while in polit- 
ical action he has ever been allied with the Re- 
publican party, aiding loyally in its successive 
campaigns. 

At Rexburg, Idaho, on July 28, 1884. Mr. 
Hendricks was united in marriage with Miss 
Ellen Neilson, a daughter of David and Harriet 
(Yates) Neilson, natives of Scotland and Eng- 
land, who came to the United States in 1861, in 
their slow journey with ox teams across the 
plains suffering not only great hardships and 
privations, but menaced danger from hostile 
Indians, arriving, however, ultimately at their 
destination at Salt Lake, and locating for one 
year in Tooele county, thereafter removing to 
the Cache Valley, where the mother now resides 
at sixty-nine years of age. 

The names of the children of this marriage 
are as follows: Ellen, born August 8, 1885; 
William H. died December 12. 1886; David 
died August 31, 1887; Alice E., born August 
12, 1888 ; Mabel, born February 5, 1891 ; Katie, 
born June 13, 1893; Harriet D., bom April 17, 
1896; Clara, born and died on May 22, 1898; 
Sarah, born September 30, 1899. 

JOHN R. HEATH. 

Among the sterling and honored pioneers 
of the great West who were prominently 
connected with enterprises attended with the 
perils and vicissitudes appertaining to an 
early life on the frontier, where the dangers 
attendant upon frequent encounters with wild 
beasts and wilder savages were only among 



the slightest of the discomforts of existence, 
John R. Heath worthily filled his place in the 
great plan of life, being a pioneer of pioneers 
and one of the finest representatives of his 
class, whose hospitable residence ever gave 
generous entertainment and ever manifested 
the cardinal virtues of inflexible honesty, 
marked domesticity and indefatigable in- 
dustry. His wife cordially indorsed his plans, 
endeavors and beneficences, continuing them 
in large measure after his death, proving the 
strength and nobility of her nature, and win- 
ning the love of a large number of friends 
and the reverence of her children, who may 
well "rise up' and call her blessed." To her. 
as well as to her departed husband, is due a 
tribute in this publication. 

The Heath family is one of the oldest 
ones of the Massachusetts colony, the emi- 
grant ancestors coming from England at a 
very early date of the settlement. In the 
momentous events preceding and leading up 
to the war of the Revolution and in that con- 
flict, as well as in the earlier French and In- 
dian wars, various members of this family 
rendered valiant service in both military and 
civil life, while their blood has been shed for 
their country in every war in which it has con- 
tested from that time to the present. The 
paternal grandparents of the one of whom we 
now write were Harford and Mary Heath, 
lifelong residents of Massachusetts and Mis- 
sissippi, and in Hinds county in the latter state. 
occurred the birth of their son, John W. 
Heath, the father of our pioneer. 

John W. Heath passed his early life in 
Mississippi and in 1850, at the age of thirty 
years, he commenced his connection with the 
pioneer life of the West by crossing the plains 
with an ox train of emigrants, keeping his 
march steadily westward until lie reached Los 
Angeles, Calif., returning from his ac- 
tivities there four vears later and sfoins: to 




J. E. HEATH. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



215 



Utah, where he first located at Farmington 
in Davis county, from there later removing to 
Weber Valley, where he was one of the first 
to engage in successful farming operations 
and continued to reside for fifteen years. From 
thence he migrated to Ogden Valley, and then 
two years afterward returning to Weber Val- 
ley, from which locality one year later, in 
1875, he made his way to Idaho and located 
on Willow Creek, his being one of the first 
three families to form a residence within the 
limits of Bingham county. 

From his advent in this region until the 
day of his death, in 1900, at the hale old age 
of seventy-six years, Mr. Heath was a con- 
spicuous and a forceful factor in every ele- 
ment of the rapid growth and improvement 
of the community, developing, with the as- 
sistance of his industrious and most capable 
wife, one of the most attractive homes to be 
seen in a wide extent of territory, where she 
yet resides, secure in the affection and high 
regard of her descendants and a large num- 
ber of friends who look upon her as a genuine 
mother in Israel, whose sterling worth and 
practical ability have done so much in many 
ways for the community. Her home, has 
ever been the center of most generous hospi- 
tality, and her husband and family found 
here their greatest happiness. In the church 
Mr. Heath was highly valued, at the time of 
his death holding place as high council. 

Mrs. Caroline (Grover) Heath, whose 
marriage occurred in June, 1856, is a daugh- 
ter of Thomas and Caroline (Whiting) 
Grover, her father being a native of Buffalo, 
N. Y., and he became a member of the Mor- 
mon church in 1833, the year of its organiza- 
tion. He faithfully followed the fortunes of 
the church in all of its wanderings, migrating 
to Ohio, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, to Iowa and 
on to> Utah in 1847. ^ n I &5° he went east 
as a missionary of his religion and there con- 



tinued for four years. His later life was 
passed in Utah, where he was made a high 
counsellor, and which he held for several 
years, and with conceded ability, during his 
residence in Iowa, the office of judge at Coun- 
cil City, now Council Bluffs. He also was 
dignified with the same office while a resident 
of Farmington, Utah. He was a son of 
Thomas Grover, a Scotchman, who early in 
life became a resident of New York, where 
he married Polly Spaulding, of English de- 
scent, and both passed there their remaining 
years. 

Mrs. Caroline (Whiting) Grover was a 
daughter of Nathaniel Whiting, a represent- 
ative of an old Dutch family early coming 
from Holland to New York. Mr. Whiting 
married a Miss Mercy Young, of Irish ex- 
traction, and their later years were passed in 
Illinois. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Heath 
consisted of seven children, of whom six are 
now living, namely : Georgiana, now Mrs. Al- 
bert Anderson, who has thirteen children ; Jane 
T., Mrs. Sage Kelley, five children; William 
A. married Margaret Davis, six children; 
Hannah J. married Manuel Burnett, eleven 
children ; Minard married Margaret Foss, 
seven children; Jane E., Mrs. Joseph Coles, 
six children, and Caroline, deceased. 

VICTOR HERMAN, 

There is one thing in which the long estab- 
lished civilized countries of Europe far excel 
the American nation and that thing is the prep- 
aration required to fit an individual for a tech- 
nical or mechanical trade, and when we ascer- 
tain that a man is qualified to work at any of 
the vocations of the above character, it follows 
necessarily that he is a master of his trade, 
technically taught and practically expert, there- 
fore men of that character are much sought for 
when they become residents of America, for 



2I( 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



there is no detail in the trades they have learned 
but they are familiar with and no technical pe- 
culiarity of which they are not master. This 
fact must above all other matters be brought 
to mind in considering the useful activities of 
Victor Herman, the expert miller in charge 
of the mechanical department of the Rexburg 
Milling Co.'s manufacturing establishment, the 
excellent quality of its output being in no small 
measure due to the skilled capability and knowl- 
edge of Mr. Herman, and a brief review of his 
life seems very pertinent in connection with a 
proper mention of his work. 

Mr. Herman was born on June 15, i860, 
at Gothenburg, Sweden, a son of John and 
Mary (Christianson) Herman, both natives of 
Sweden, where his father was in business in 
Gothenburg as a mason until his death in 1877, 
the mother surviving his departure from life 
but three years. Victor was but thirteen years 
old when he was sent to Germany, and to one 
of the most complete milling establishments of 
that great country he was duly apprenticed for 
a term of seven years, they to be devoted to the 
acquisition of all the varied departments of the 
milling business, and here he faithfully served 
his time, becoming the full master of the trade, 
competent to build, equip and take charge of 
an)- mill, whatever might be its character or 
capacity. Reinforced by such a thorough and 
superior technical education, Mr. Herman was 
fully prepared and equipped for his prospective 
life's work, and, returning to his native land, 
he at once entered upon a practical demonstra- 
tion of his ability, continuing to labor there 
until 1888, when, having connected himself 
with the Mormon church, he joined a com- 
pany of the Swedish emigrants bound for 
Utah and came directly to Salt Lake City. 

From his arrival in Utah to the present 
writing, he has given satisfactory evidence of 
his capability as a miller, having been almost 
continuously in charge of important mills, com- 



ing to Rexburg in April, 1902, and taking full 
charge of the milling operations of the Rex- 
burg Milling Co., in which he has continued to 
the full satisfaction of his employers, and by 
his winning personality acquiring a large place 
in the hearts of the people. A well-read and 
thoughtful student of men and events, Mr. 
Herman has maintained an independent posi- 
tion in politics, allying himself with no clique 
or part}-, while in social relations he is known 
as an honest investigator of all questions of a 
local character and as giving liberal support to 
all objects which his judgment approves. In 
August. 1882, he was married in Sweden with 
Miss Ida Helberg, whose father died in her na- 
tive country, the mother coming to America 
with Mr. and Mrs. Herman, and locating in 
Salt Lake City, where she now resides at sev- 
enty years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Herman have 
had the following children, Charles. Alma, died 
at the age of five years and six months; Carl. 
Arthur (deceased), Fred, Fritz and Ida. 

DAVID W. HESS. 

Among the men who hold assured position 
in the social, business and agricultural circles 
of Bear Lake county, Idaho, must be placed 
David W. Hess, as he is occupying ah ad- 
vanced place in the community, which he has 
won by his ability, his foresight, his resnlnle 
and tenacious purpose and his sagacity and tact, 
scoring a highly merited success, which has not 
come from chance, but has been brought about 
through his acumen, integrity and honorable 
dealing. He was born in Farmington. Utah, 
on January 31. 1859, a son of the marriage un- 
ion of David and Mary A. (Wilson) Hess, na- 
tives of Pennsylvania and Illinois, the father 
being of German and the mother of Scotch an- 
cestry. They were early located in Utah, the 
father being a man of good repute and promi- 
nence in the Mormon church, holding manv ec- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



217 



clesiastical offices, while in temporal life he was 
an enterprising farmer. He still maintains his 
home in Farming-ton, the mother of our sub- 
ject passing away from earth in 1896. 

Passing his youth on his father's farm after 
the manner of fanners' sons of that place and 
period, interspersing his labor with attendance 
at the local schools, Mr. Hess early engaged in 
matrimony, wedding, on August 10, 1879, Miss 
Eliza J. Bacon, a native of Pleasant Grove, 
Utah, and a daughter of Francis and Jane (Lo- 
der) Bacon, the father being an American and 
the mother a native of England. Coming early 
to Utah their home was ever afterward re- 
tained at Pleasant Grove, where the mother 
died, on December 7, i860, the father there- 
after coming to Georgetown, his present resi- 
dence. 

Engaging in ranching immediately subse- 
quent to his marriage, the energetic efforts of 
Mr. Hess were prospered, and he rapidly forged 
to the front, becoming one of the prominent 
stockmen of his section and as a result of his 
judiciously applied industry and business quali- 
ties he is now possessed in fee simple of a fine 
ranch of 400 acres in a good state of improve- 
ment, eligibly located three miles southwest of 
Georgetown, while he is also the possessor of 
an elegant property of ninety acres at George- 
town, which he has extensively improved and 
developed, and where he now maintains his 
home, having erected suitable buildings, and 
being engaged in a mercantile business of scope 
and importance, carrying a well-selected stock 
of general merchandise. 

Mr. Hess has always taken interest in pub- 
lic matters and has given of his time and means 
to forward any needed measure for the public 
benefit, but has never entered the realm of poli - 
tics, only in a general way as any thoughtful 
voter should do, and never placed himself in 
nomination for any public station, believing 
that his private affairs demanded all of his time 



and energy, accepting, however, an election to 
the office of justice of the peace in 1892. In 
church relations he has held it a duty to re- 
spond to -every call and has held with fidelity 
and usefulness the offices of president of the 
Quorum of the Seventies and of the Young 
Men's Mutual Improvement Association. The 
family of Mr. and Mrs. Hess comprises the fol- 
lowing named children : Mae, Edna, Clarence 
W., Loren G, deceased, Mabel, Ora, deceased, 
Melva, deceased, David Lawrence, Francis De- 
verl, Willard Roscoe and Russell Lee. 

MORONI HESS. 

While geographically we shall always have 
a frontier, the term in its old application is a 
thing of the past, for the old order of things 
has given place to the new and where once the 
savage Indian roamed the plains and tented 
beside the mountain streams, the typical cow- 
boy now rides the open ranch and life is free 
and primitive, but the progress, development 
and advancement of civilization are on every 
hand; churches and schoolhouses appear in ev- 
ery valley and dot every plain. Many of the 
"old-timers" sigh for the days that are gone, 
and for the scenes that marked the early life of 
the frontier, yet they cannot but view with sat- 
isfaction the great transition which has oc- 
curred and which they have to so large an ex- 
tent aided in bringing about. 

Although not one of the oldest of the pio- 
neers of Idaho, yet Mr. Moroni Hess, now a 
representative stockman of Bingham county, 
Idaho, has still had many experiences and wit- 
nessed many circumstances that may be truly 
considered as belonging to the pioneer era, and 
a brief review of his life and activities would 
seem most pertinent to any work that treats of 
the progressive men of Bingham county, where 
he maintains his business headquarters and his 
home. He was born in Davis county, Utah, on 



2l8 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



December 30, 1855, a son of John W. and Em- 
eline (Bigler) Hess, both of them natives of 
Pennsylvania, the father, a pioneer of pioneers, 
coming to Utah with the first Mormon immi- 
gration, having crossed the plains with a cara- 
van in 1847, the very first year of the Mormon 
occupancy of the Salt Lake district. He ren- 
dered faithful and efficient service to his coun- 
try in the war with Mexico, being called for 
when on the way to Utah, after the war return- 
ing to his adopted home, where he married and 
engaged in agricultural life at Farmington, 
Utah, where he now resides. His faithful and 
capable wife, the mother of his nine children, 
has passed from earth to those activities that 
know no weariness, both being people who 
stood high in the esteem of the community, for 
their numerous social qualities, religious devo- 
tion and sterling traits of character. 

Moroni Hess attained his manhood in Utah 
in the transforming period of its life, when it 
was exchanging its savage wildness for a culti- 
vated existence, and was early familiarized 
with everything that pertains to the life of the 
frontier, its pleasures as well as its hardships 
and privations, developing a strong and sturdy 
physical organization and active and energetic 
mental qualities that have since stood him in 
good stead in the struggle for existence. At 
the age of nineteen years he became his own 
master and started out in life as a farmer, for 
two years residing in the wilds of Arizona, 
thence returning to Utah and in 1880 coming 
to Cassia Creek, Idaho, and identifying himself 
with the life and activities of this new section 
of the country, in which he has been one of the 
factors in its progress towards civilization, and 
one of the developing forces that have aided in 
its transformation. 

In 1886 he came to Bingham county, took 
up a homestead near Basalt, and engaged in 
farming and in stockraising, developing his 
place until 1901, when, having largelv en- 



hanced its value, he sold it and purchased the 
estate upon which he now resides and where 
he owns 160 acres of well-improved land. The 
homestead is in all essentials the product 
of his own skill, good taste and industry, and 
here he is engaged in conducting stockraising 
operations of a cumulative character, destined 
to become a business of importance, running at 
present a band of sixty head of cattle and also 
horses, being prospered in his undertakings, for 
his thrift and success are based upon his quali- 
ties of inherent strength and capacitv and not 
on external aid or particularly favorable cir- 
cumstances. A man of thought and intelli- 
gence, he stands in accord with the Socialist 
political party and zealously supports its candi- 
dates in its successive campaigns, while he is 
one of the Seventies in the Church of Latter 
Day Saints, in which religious body his father 
was a president of Davis stake and also a patri- 
arch. 

On January 4, 1876, in Salt Lake City. 
Utah, Mr. Hess married with Miss Emily A. 
Smith, a native of Davis count}', Utah, and a 
daughter of Lot and Jane \Y. (Walker) Smith, 
her father also coming to Utah with the sol- 
diers of the Mexican war, in which he gave 
distinctive service. Mrs. Hess died on May 5, 
tooi, being the mother of ten children, namely : 
Jane E., Oren, Lot, Jessie, Asel, Minnie, Alice. 
Ouincy, Archie, deceased, and Gilbert. 

GEORGE A. HIBBARD. 

Born in Farmington, L T tah, on July [8, 
1857, a son of George and Hannah (Williams') 
Hibbard, the immediate subject of this bio- 
graphical mention descends from sturdy Eng- 
lish ancestors, accustomed to self-reliance, self- 
support and independence, and in his career he 
has shown that he has in a marked degree in- 
herited these desirable traits of character, and 
it is eminently proper to state that he is a self- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



219 



made man, worthy of the confidence and es- 
teem reposed in him hy his business associates, 
his friends, and the public generally. In 1855 
his parents emigrated from England, having 
the headquarters of the Mormon church as 
their objective point, and to reach this they had, 
like thousands upon thousands of others, to 
cross the plains, following the slow course of 
their oxen along the well-worn emigrant trail 
for hundreds and hundreds more of miles. In 
due time arriving at Salt Lake City, the father 
there engaged in shoemaking, at which he was 
employed for the long period of twenty years, 
thereafter removing to the Cache Valley of 
Utah, where he purchased the property now 
known as the Temple block and conducted gar- 
dening for a period of time, when he exchanged 
his real-estate for land in Logan, and this he 
subsequently sold to remove to Rexburg", Idaho, 
whither he came in 1888, taking up a home- 
stead not far distant, but on which he did not 
live to "prove up," as his death occurred on 
October 29, 1891, surviving the mother of our 
subject, who died at Logan, Utah, in 1879. 

Receiving the educational advantages of 
the excellent schools of Logan until he was 
twenty-one years old, George A. Hibbard en- 
gaged then in carpentry on the Union Pacific 
Railroad for two years, thence coming to the 
LTpper Valley of the Snake River of Idaho, 
there taking up a homestead of 160 acres and 
becoming permanently identified with the agri- 
cultural and stockraising industries of Fremont 
count}''. He was from the first greatly inter- 
ested in the vital subject of irrigation, helped 
to construct the first canals instituted for that 
purpose and from 1891 to 1901 was a director 
in the Consolidated Farmers' Irrigating Canal 
Co. In all of the various movements for the 
advancement and improvement of the commun- 
ity and of the county Mr. Hibbard has ever 
demonstrated a broad and generous spirit, lib- 
erally contributing of his time and means in 



their behalf, and he has also been an earnest 
worker in the ranks of the Republican political 
party, supporting its principles and candidates 
in the successive campaigns and at the polls. 

In the Church of Latter Day Saints, of 
which he has been a sincere and useful member 
from childhood, he has been honored with im- 
portant positions, holding those of teacher, 
priest and elder, while since June 9, 1895, he 
has been the acceptable and worthy bishop of 
Island ward. At the conference held in Janu- 
ary, 1904, the name of the ward was changed 
to Hibbard, in his honor. Bishop Hibbard is 
a man of generous impulses, his hand and his 
purse ever being in readiness when any of his 
people are in need of assistance, and his cordial 
aid ever being given to the erection of churches, 
educational institutions and other public build- 
ings, his whole life being an open book, where- 
in is seen that his successful and manly career 
is the exemplification of perseverance, industry 
and honest manhood, illustrating in a forcible 
manner what can be accomplished by pure mo- 
tives and aspirations, high ideals and a persist- 
ent determination. 

At Logan, Utah, on October 29, 1884, Mr. 
Hibbard was united in marriage with a most 
estimable lady, Miss Julia C. Lemmon, a 
daughter of Willis and Anna E. (Honeer) 
Lemmon, natives of Illinois, who made the per- 
ilous journey across the plains to Salt Lake 
City with ox carts about 1850, and after about 
ten 3'ears' residence in that metropolis, where 
the father was industriously engaged as a shoe- 
maker, in i860 they located in the Cache Val- 
ley, where the father took up land and im- 
proved and cultivated it for two years, there- 
after being- commissioned to return to the Mis- 
souri River to guide and assist incoming immi- 
grants to the land of Zion, and, this mission of 
duty being accomplished, himself and wife have 
since peacefully lived on their attractive estate 
in the Cache Valley. To the home of Mr. and 



220 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Mrs. Hibbard has come the cheering presence 
of the following named children : Mabel ; 
Georgia died on January 26, 1888; Nellie; 
Stella died on August 31, 1901 ; Willis: Alice; 
Rhoda ; and Julia. 

GEORGE E. HILL. 

There is no citizen of Fremont county, 
Idaho, who has held a more enviable position in 
civil life or in ecclesiastical circles than has the 
unostentatious gentleman whose name heads 
this article. Mr. Hill was born on August 29, 
1838, at Peterboro, N. H., being the son of 
Leonard and Sarah (Forbes) Hill, the father's 
life work being that of a farmer and a skilled 
worker in wood, in which he was an expert. In 
the early part of the year 1840 the parents emi- 
grated to Nauvoo, and after migrating from 
there to Iowa the father died. The mother 
only survived him a short time, dying at Coun- 
cil Bluffs, Iowa, in 1845. The subject of this 
memoir was a lad of ten years of age when he 
accompanied Elder Orson Hyde to Utah, and 
from that time to the present he has been a de- 
voted disciple of the Mormon church, ardent 
and zealous in its good works. 

Reaching Salt Lake City in 1852, his life 
was there passed in various-occupations and ac- 
tivities until he came to Rigby in 1885. From 
that time he has been one of the potent influ- 
ences for good in the building up of the com- 
munity, ever standing as a representative of 
law and order, being the president also of the 
Rigby Irrigating Canal Co. for one year and 
a director for several years, while from 1897 
to 1899 he was an effective and efficient justice 
of the peace, while in 1902 he received the ap- 
pointment of United States mail carrier. 

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
Saints he has filled important offices in the spirit 
of true religion, among them being those of 
teacher, elder, then a member of the Seventies, 



and his qualification in reference to executive 
ability and other requisite functions were such 
that he was made the president of the One 
Hundred and Seventy-sixth Quorum, which of- 
fice he held for seven years and until 1899, 
when he asked to be excused on the reorganiza- 
tion of the Quorum. 

Mr. Hill has been three times married. By 
his first wife, Frances Louisa Van Tassell, he 
had two children. Amelia, who died at two years 
of age, and George E., born October 10, 1868. 
By the second wife, Ellen Nelson, he had seven 
children, Cyrus E., deceased; Charles F., born 
September 14, 1874; Henry, born on June 3. 
1877; Joseph, deceased; Gertrude, born on Oc- 
tober 29, 1880; Fanny L., deceased ; Edwin D., 
born on April 6, 1887 ; and to his third mar- 
riage, with Eliza Haws, solemnized on August 
5. 1895, at Idaho Falls, she being a daughter 
of James and Mary A. (Walwark) Haws, there 
have come three children. Rose May, torn May 
5, 1896; Walter Francis, born May 3. 1S98. 
and William A., born on December 3. 1901. 

JOSEPH W. HIGH AM. 

Another of the adopted sons of Idaho Falls, 
and one who represents that sturdy element 
which under the most discouraging circum- 
stances has gained for this section of the coun- 
try its wonderful prestige as an agricultural 
section, conserving its industries and resources 
through individual interposition and effort, and 
witnessing her rapid development and the prog- 
ress of the state of Idaho to a position of im- 
portance in the great sisterhood of the Union, 
Mr. Higham was born on April 23, [859, at 
Ogden. Utah, a son of Charles and Jane 
(Thompson) Higham, Mormon immigrants. 
who came to Utah from England in 1856 and 
located at Salt Lake City, thereafter making 
their home at Ogden. Utah, for about ten years, 
thence removing to Soda Springs, Idaho, and. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



221 



after a brief residence there, making their home 
at Blackfoot, where the father died at the age 
of sixty-seven years in 189 1, the mother sur- 
viving him and dying at the age of seventy in 
1894, being the mother of seven children, of 
whom Joseph was the youngest in order of 
birth. 

Joseph W. Higham passed his early years 
in Utah, coming with his parents to Idaho, and 
remaining with them until he became of suf- 
ficient age to engage in the activities of life for 
himself, then working on the homestead ranch 
Avith his brother from the age of twenty years 
to the v age of twenty-six. On July 27, 1885, 
occurred his marriage with Margaret Jones, 
a daughter of William and Ann (Haddock) 
Jones, natives of Wales, who crossed the plains 
on their wa)r to Utah with ox teams in 1855, 
and located in Farmington, Utah, afterwards 
making their home in Ogden until 1861, thence 
removing to the northern part of Davis county, 
where the father is still engaged in fanning 
operations at the age of seventy-seven. He en- 
joys the marked esteem of the community. His 
wife was also a native of Wales, who died at 
South Weber, Utah, at the age of seventy-eight 
years, in 1901. She was the mother of nine 
children, and the daughter of William Had- 
dock, who was for many years a soldier of the 
British army! . 

After his marriage Mr. Higham took the 
entire charge of his father's estate, there de- 
voting his attention to grain and cattleraising 
until he located upon his present place, in 1897. 
Mr. Higham is now very pleasantly situated, 
his ranch being outfitted with suitable build- 
ings and the necessary facilities for successful 
stockraising operations, his home being located 
less than six miles northeast of Idaho Falls. 
He is here not only conducting diversified 
farming, but also is running large herds of su- 
perior cattle of a high grade, and among the 
favorites to which he is giving especial atten- 



tion are the Shorthorn, Durham and Hereford 
breeds. 

Politically Mr. Higham gives his support 
to the Republican party, with whose principles 
and policies he is in strong accord. Mr. and 
Mrs. Higham have two living children, Anna 
May and Joseph L., while two others, Flora 
and Pearl, twins, have died. Mr. Higham is 
a man of character, will-power and energy, and 
one of the best representatives of the stockmen 
of this section of the state, while his wife has 
ever been an efficient helpmeet to him. Their 
pleasant home is a hospitable rendezvous for 
their numerous friends. Fraternally he is a 
popular member of the Woodmen of the World, 
and with his wife is affiliated with the Women 
of Woodcraft, an auxiliary society. 

NELS N. HOLM. 

An industrious and successful farmer and 
stockman, now owning 120 acres of nicely im- 
proved land in the vicinity of Shelley, Bing- 
ham county, Idaho, Nels N. Holm is a nathe 
of Denmark, his birth having there occurred 011 
October 26, 1851, as a son of Nels P. and An- 
nie O. (Nelson) Holm, who were natives of the 
same fair land. He attained manhood in his 
native country, giving specific attention to the 
technical instruction of agriculture at the Na- 
tional Agricultural College and also passed an 
apprenticeship at both civil engineering and the 
machinist's trade, becoming fully qualified in 
the technique of these vocations as a' master 
workman. 

Mr. Holm combined working at his trades 
and at fanning in his native land until 187S, 
when he came to America, making his first lo- 
cation at Fremont, Neb., where until 1886 he 
was prosperously engaged as a contractor; 
thereafter he removed to Seattle, Wash., 
thence in 1894 he came to Bingham county and 
located his present ranch as a homestead, and 



222 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OE BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



from that time he has been diligently engaged 
in its development and in farming and stock- 
raising, now owning 120 acres of productive 
land, also running a fine band of cattle and an 
excellent strain of thoroughbred Belgian horses 
which have the distinction of taking two pre- 
miums at the Bingham county fair. Mr. Holm 
takes an intelligent and active position in pub- 
lic affairs of a local nature, and in 1892 was the 
nominee of the Democratic party for the posi- 
tion of county surveyor, for the duties of which 
office he is eminently qualified. He is also a 
prominent member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, being affiliated with the lodge 
at Shelley. 

On May 23, 1877, while still a resident of 
Denmark, he was married with Miss Annie 
Poulsen. also a native of Denmark, and their 
family consists of two children : Annie, now 
the wife of A. Olsen, of Custer, Idaho, and 
Lena. The success which has attended the ef- 
forts of Mr. Holm in his adopted country has 
been due to his progressive methods, to his 
marked capacity in an executive way and to 
his personal attention and supervision of all 
enterprises in which he has been interested. 
His acumen and his energy are certain to make 
his career one of cumulative success. His gen- 
ial personality has gained for him a host of 
friends wherever he has made his home. 

J. H. DENNING. 

Among the pioneers of this section of the 
Great West, few have lived more closelv to 
the strenuous life of the frontier than has Mr. 
Denning, who was one of the first pioneers 
of the community, now residing at Sand 
Creek, Bingham county, Idaho, where he 
maintains his home and residence of 320 acres 
of land, which is pleasantly situated seven 
miles northeast of Idaho Falls. In any work- 
purporting to accord recognition to the rep- 



resentative men of this section, specific men- 
tion must be made of Mr. J. H. Denning. 
He was born on January 25. 1853, in Mon- 
mouthshire, England, being the eldest son of 
James and Sarah (Merrifield) Denning, the 
father being a native of Somersetshire. Eng- 
land, and dying in Malad, Idaho, on June 2, 
1898, at the age of sixty-nine years, ami his 
body now lies in the cemetery at St. John await- 
ing the resurrection. He was a son of Henry 
D. Denning, who was a collier in Somerset- 
shire, England, and there passed his entire life. 

It was to secure freedom of thought and 
relief from persecution in the enjoyment of 
their religious faith of Mormonism, that in- 
duced the emigration of this family from Eng- 
land, and the long and wearisome journey 
was cheerfully taken that they might ac- 
complish the results of their endeavi irs under 
suns of the West. The family, from its ar- 
rival in the West, has always been one of the 
advanced guard of civilization of the frontier. 
The father becoming a farmer near Salt Lake 
City, after crossing the plains in one o f the 
ox-team caravans, and one of the pioneers of 
the Cache Valley and afterward of Bear Lake 
Valley. LTp to the time of his death he was 
one of the honored members of the Mormon 
church. His faithful and devoted wife survived 
her husband, dying at the age of sixty-nine 
years, in iqoo, being buried at Malad City. 
the mother of thirteen children. She was held 
in affectionate regard and filial reverence by 
her offspring and the people of the various 
communities where she so long resided. 

James H. Denning was but three weeks 
old when he left England with bis father's 
family. His early life was passed and his edu- 
cation wholly acquired in Utah, where he 
gave diligent service in the family labors until 
he was twenty-one years of age. when he en- 
gaged in freighting operations which, attain- 
ing scope and importance, extended through 




J. H. DENNING. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



225 



Utah, Idaho and Montana, to which he g~ave 
his attention with satisfactory results for a 
period of about fourteen years, thereafter, in 
1884, locating as a pioneer on Sand Creek 
in Bingham county, Idaho. Indefatig'ably, 
and with earnestness of purpose, he has ap- 
plied himself with diligence to the develop- 
ment of his ranch and other temporal in- 
terests, being splendidly endowed with those 
fine practical and substantial qualities which 
enter into successful leadership and favorable 
financial results. As a citizen he is popular 
with all classes, believing that religion is a 
matter of conscience and therefore not to be 
interfered with ; that politics is a matter of 
principle upon which the wisest may differ, 
holding firmly to his own political belief as an 
unswerving Democrat, and being a valued 
member of his political party. A consistent 
member of the Mormon church, he ranks in 
its circles as a high priest, and is one of the 
high counsellors of Bingham stake. 

The marriage of Mr. Denning and Miss 
Rosanna W. Williams, a native of Utah, and 
a daughter of John J. Williams, an early pio- 
neer of Malad Valley, Utah, occurred on De- 
cember 23, 1875. For more extended in- 
formation concerning her father and his fam- 
ily, the reader is referred to a separate sketch 
to be found elsewhere in this volume. The 
family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Denning in- 
cludes these children : James, Mary, Walter, 
Sarah, Rosanna, Effie. Martha, George and 
Oliver. At the pleasant attractive home of 
Mr. Denning, a courteous hospitality is ever 
in evidence and here the many friends of the 
family are hospitably entertained. 

ARZA ERASTUS HINCKLEY. 

The sentiment which would perpetuate the 
memory of our friends should be strengthened 
~hy every rational appeal to the reasoning pow- 



ers and the imagination of man, and fond af- 
fection should thereto give its loving sympathy, 
but the perpetuation should be given a direction 
most consistent with substantial and beneficial 
results to the human race. No man's memory 
is as safe in chiseled marble as it is on the pages 
of history, for he must be measured by the 
character of the life he lived and weighed in 
the scales of a just analysis of the acts he has 
done, the deeds he has performed. The true 
monument, sacred to the memory of man, 
should be builded in the life and purposes of 
the one commemorated, and his acts, standing 
out on the pages of history, should forever re- 
main the safeguard of his memory among the 
people. Especially true is this statement in ref- 
erence to the life and activities of the late Arza 
Erastus Hinckley, whose deeds were good and- 
not evil all the days of his life. 

Mr. Hinckley was born at Leeds, Ontario, 
on August 15, 1826, and died at Rexburg, 
Idaho, on February 18, 1901, being the son of 
Nathaniel and Lois (Judd) Hinckley, natives of 
what is now the province of Ontario, Canada, 
but then called Upper Canada. His early life 
was passed, like others of his place and period, 
in a careful attention to industry and the im- 
perative necessity of attending promptly to the 
calls of duty was early instilled into his mind 
through the effective teachings of his pious par- 
ents. Becoming a convert to the Mormon faith 
while yet a youth, he joined the Nauvoo settle- 
ment, and, in 1846, became a member of that 
historic Mormon battalion that entered the 
service of the United States against the Mexi- 
cans, which he accompanied in its perilous 
march across the country to California, and, 
that the reader may know that this journey was 
not a holiday trip, we quote from Bancroft's 
History of Utah as follows : 

"Much of the route lay through a trackless 
desert, at few points could' food be obtained in 
sufficient quantities for man or beast, and some- 



226 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



times even water failed. Before leaving Santa 
Fe rations were reduced, and soon afterward 
further reduced to one-half and finally to one- 
quarter allowance, the meat issued to the troops 
being the flesh of such horses and other animals 
as were unable to proceed further, and their 
hides and entrails were eagerly devoured, being 
gulped down with drafts of water, when water 
could be had. While suffering these hardships, 
the men were compelled to carry their knap- 
sacks, muskets and also extra ammunition, and 
sometimes were called on to push their wagons 
through heavy sand, or to help to drag them 
over mountain ranges. When passing through 
a New Mexican pueblo on the 24th of October, 
some of the men were almost as naked as on 
the day of their birth, except for a breech clout, 
or, as their colonel termed it, a 'center-cloth- 
ing,' tied about the loins." 

In the endurance of these sufferings did the 
"despised" Mormons vindicate their loyalty to 
the American Union. In this dreadful march, 
from eating the seed buds of the wild rose 
bushes, and other equally as injurious sub- 
stances, in order to alia}- his inordinate hunger. 
Air. Hinckley utterly destroyed the proper ac- 
tion of his stomach, and never recovered his 
health in consequence thereof. From the mus- 
ter-out in California, Mr. Hinckley came back- 
to Utah, thence returning- east to bring his fam- 
ily across the plains in an ox team company, 
which being accomplished, he became officially 
connected in the duties of the tithing office with 
Daniel H. Wells, and, during the first twenty- 
five years of his married life, the family moved 
twenty-five times to various places in Utah., 
finally locating at Coalville, where he was elect 
ed probate judge of the county, serving with 
pronounced ability in this station for four years, 
thereafter transferring the family home to Cove 
Creek fort, they residing there for six years 
and then moving to Logan. He, soon after lo- 
cating at Logan, was called to mission work of 



eighteen months among the Indian tribes of 
Arizona, which being successfully performed, 
he removed to Rexburg in 1885, there finding 
that most of the land which had been previ- 
ously taken up for the "saints" had been 
"jumped," but there still remained the 160 
acres on which his son now resides. Here he 
established his home and devoted his attention 
to the starting of a nursery, which after great 
expense, proved a failure on account of the ex- 
cessively cold weather of this high altitude. He 
was active and prominent in local affairs, al- 
though his health was ever poor, for a number 
of years was an efficient road supervisor, and 
took much personal interest in the building of 
irrigating canals. He was deservedly held in 
great and universal esteem in his church, hold- 
ing here first the office of elder and at the time 
of his death that of patriarch. 

On February 18. 1857, he formed his sec- 
ond marriage, a most happy one. with Miss 
Temperance Ricks, a daughter of Joel and Fl- 
eanor (Martin) Ricks, who, natives of Ken- 
tucky, crossed the. plains with ox teams in the 
early immigration days. Temperance, although 
a young girl, driving a team the greater portion 
of the entire distance. The parents made their 
permanent home at Logan. Utah, becoming 
valuable and highly prized citizens of the 1 
munity, until they were called from earth, the 
mother in 1882 and the father in r888. A 
brief record of the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Hinckley follows: Lois A., deceased, buried 
at Salt Lake City; Joel, killed at Franklin, 
Idaho, on October 28, 18S1, when he was twen- 
ty-one years of age, by robbers who attacked the 
telegraph office where he was an operator; El- 
eanor; Lewis died at Salt Lake City; Ella C. 
(Mrs. Thos. B. Gordon); Rhoda A., now Mrs. 
James Mason; Silas; Arthur S. ; Minnie M. 
(Mrs. C. F. Bowen); Nathan Roy. Mrs. 
Hinckley is now passing the evening twilight 
of a more than ordinarily busy life in her cheer- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



227 



ful home in Rexburg, surrounded by children 
and children's children who delight to do her 
honor, and is held in reverent esteem by a host 
of old-time friends, who honor her for the in- 
tegrity of her life, her kindness of heart and the 
good she has accomplished. Among the many 
works of public benefit and church charity her 
willing hands have diligently performed are 
those important ones of president of the Stake 
Relief Society of her church, in which high 
position she performed valuable and highly ac- 
ceptable and appreciative service for seventeen 
years and until she tendered her resignation on 
account of failing health in 1903. 

RUSSELL K. HOMER. 

No man has been a more diligent worker in 
the public and private interests with which he 
has been connected in Fremont county than has 
the honored gentleman whose very useful ca- 
reer we have now under consideration, Mr. 
Russell K. Homer, of Poplar, Bingham county, 
Idaho, and he belongs to that class of repre- 
sentative Americans who are promoting the 
public good even while securing their own ad- 
vancement and success. He was born in Salt 
Lake City, Utah, on July 6, 1859, the young- 
est of the eleven children of Russell K. and 
Eliza (Williamson) Homer, the father being a 
native of New York and the mother of Michi- 
gan, and it came to pass that in 1858 they left 
their Iowa home and with the regulation ox 
teams, so characteristic of that period of West- 
ern immigration, they crossed the plains with 
a large company of Latter Day Saints who 
were en route for Utah, and located in the Sec- 
ond ward of Salt Lake City, the father in. 1859 
returning to Iowa for the purpose of disposing 
of his property there, which done he again trav- 
eled the wearisome miles of the long emigrant's 
trail, thus crossing the plains for the third time. 
After some years' residence in Salt Lake City 



the family home was transferred to Clarkston, 
where the father was occupied with the two cor- 
relative branches of husbandry, farming and 
stockraising, until his death at Clarkston on 
February 14, 1891. The mother is now pass- 
ing the closing years of a busy, eventful and 
truly religious existence at the home of her 
son Russell, having accomplished eighty-six 
years of life, and seven of her large family of 
children are now living, the subject of this me- 
moir and two sisters being all who reside in 
Idaho. 

Mr. Homer received the greater portion of 
his scholastic education in the school at Three- 
mile Creek, Salt Lake City, thereafter being 
connected in an energetic manner with the ac- 
tive operations of his father's home and ranges, 
until he had passed the years of his minority, 
when he commenced the same branches of agri- 
culture which he had so successfully con- 
ducted on the paternal estate, for himself in the 
same locality, being thus prosperously occupied 
for ten years, when the advantages of a prac- 
tically unlimited amount of government land 
lying on the upper valley of the Snake River of 
Idaho, which was available for homesteading 
and free range, induced him to make a new 
home in that desirable section of country, and 
so, in September, 1888, he came to Rigby, took 
up a homestead of 160 acres, and, with his ac- 
customed vigor and energy, at once became a 
positive force in the process of developing the 
capabilities of the country, clearing off the 
sagebrush, taking hold of irrigation matters by 
assisting in the building of the early canals, be- 
coming a shareholder and a director for several 
terms in the Rigby Canal Co., and engaging 
in the limited farming operations of the early 
period, which under his faithful endeavors soon 
resulted in productive harvests and bounteous 
crops. 

In August, 1 90 1, he sold his Rigby prop- 
erty, which he had developed into one of the 



228 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE,. 



finest farms of that section, and purchased 160 
acres of land on Birch Creek, which he is rap- 
idly bringing into the same high state of im- 
provement which marked his Rigby land, hav- 
ing the control of the water from Birch CreeK 
and running seventy-five head of superior. 
Shorthorns and Hereford cattle and conduct- 
ing diversified farming, while he has the nu- 
cleus of one of the finest orchards of the upper 
valley. 135 thrifty fruit trees being now in bear- 
ing. Of sterling Democratic principles, Mr. 
Homer has efficiently served as a school trustee 
for some years, and in 1896 was nominated by 
his party as its candidate for county commis- 
sioner. A devoted and consistent member of 
the Church of Latter Day Saints, he has been 
honored by dignified and important offices, 
which he has filled to his credit and to the in- 
terests of the church, notably among them be- 
ing those of deacon, teacher, elder, priest, high 
priest, and of this last office he is the present 
incumbent, while in November, 189 1, he was 
ordained as first counsellor of Bishop Cordon 
of Rigby ward, which position he worthily filled 
for ten years. 

Mr. Homer was united in marriage with 
Miss Eleanor M. Atkinson on January 20, 
188 1. a daughter of Alfred and Ann (Botting) 
Atkinson, natives of England, who located in 
the Cache Valley of Utah in the early days of 
its settlement and where occurred the birth of 
Mrs. Homer, who is not only a congenial and 
effective coadjutor of her husband, but also a 
lady of deep religious sentiments and active in 
church labor, being the second counsellor of the 
Relief Society in Rigby ward until 1901. For 
the ancestral history of Mrs. Homer see the 
sketch of John Soyer elsewhere in this volume. 
To this marriage have been born the following 
named children : Russell K., on August 25, 
1881: Alfred R., on March 20, 1883; George 
A., on March 6, 1885 ; Brigham E., on Novem- 
ber 4, 1887; Eleanor A., on December 23, 



1889; William H., on November 5. 1892; Ed- 
mund E., born on January 18. 1894: John M., 
born on February 14, 1896; Eliza L., born on 
July 4, 1898. The family occupy a high niche 
in the regards of the public and are numbered 
among the worthy and reliable residents of the 
county. 

HEBER HUBAND. 

One of the prosperous and progressive 
farmers and stockgrowers in the vicinity of 
Shelley. Bingham county, Idaho, the genial na- 
ture and straightforward business methods and 
the honest frankness of Mr. Huband have won 
bin: a large circle of friends in this section of 
the state. Although born in England, on Oc- 
tober 11, i860, a son of William P. and Anna 
(Jeffries) Huband, his memory recalls but little 
connected with his native land, as at the early 
age of nine years he accompanied his parents, 
who, having become believers in the Mormon 
faith, sought the New World and the new land 
of Utah that they might be there unrestricted 
in the enjoyment of their religion. The family 
home was made as pioneers of Logan, where 
the father engaged in labors as a carpenter and 
builder, until on September 24, 1872. he was 
killed by a fall from a building in the process 
of construction. The widowed mother and 
family of seven children thereafter struggled 
with the circumstances surrounding them, she 
displaying a wonderful ability and physical en- 
durance, in the rearing and care of her children, 
manifesting- rare qualities of mental and spirit- 
ual character and a wisdom beyond the ordin- 
ary. She is at present residing in Bingham 
county. 

Mr. Huband attained manhood in Utah, 
and in 1885, in the early days of the develop- 
ment of this section of Idaho, he came to the 
new lands of Bingham county and there lo- 
cated upon a homestead and for five years he 
was busily engaged in securing proper irriga- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



229 



tion through the building- of a canal. Then, hav- 
ing fully supplied his tract with water, he en- 
gaged in farming, and has been prospered in 
his undertakings, now owning 117 acres of 
finely irrigated and productive soil, located less 
than two miles southwest of Shelley, which is 
his postomce address, by his care and discrim- 
inating efforts having propagated a fine young 
orchard and erected a convenient residence arid 
suitable farm, buildings. A Republican in polit- 
ical belief, as he is also an elder in the Church 
of Latter Day Saints and served as home mis- 
sionary for a time. 

Mr. Huband was -married on November 6, 
1890, at Logan, Utah, with Miss Hattie Che- 
ney, a native of Bear Lake county, Idaho, and 
a daughter of Josqjfi T. and Louisa (Austin) 
Cheney, natives respectively of New York and 
Connecticut. Of the five children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Huband only two are living, Blanche and 
Edward ; Lola, Nina and Montice having passed 
away from earth. Mr. Huband is decidedly one 
of the progressive men of Idaho, and it is his 
good fortune to have here secured a valuable 
home that will never fail to be cumulative in 
value, while he, being an indefatigable worker 
in any cause which enlists his interest, is now 
surrounded with all the conveniences for the 
successful prosecution of the business in which 
he has achieved such a suitable prosperity and 
in'which he delights. ' 

WELBY HUFFAKER. 

Tracing his ancestry back through a 
Southern lineage commencing in Virginia and 
continuing through several generations in 
Kentucky, Mr. Huffaker himself was born in 
Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 3, 1862, a son 
of Simpson and Elizabeth (Richardson) Huf- 
faker, the father leaving his birthplace in Ken- 
tucky when he was seventeen years of age for 
Illinois, where he was in business for some 



years, from 1829 to 1834, during this time be- 
coming acquainted with and a convert to the 
doctrines of the Mormon faith, thereafter join- 
ing the Mormon population of Nauvoo and 
there remaining until the spring of 1847 when 
■ he became a member of the first Mormon ex- 
pedition leaving Nauvoo for the new land of 
Utah, they crossing the plains and reaching 
the Salt Lake Valley on October 6, 1847. 
Two years later he journeyed to California 
and in 185 1 he returned to Utah, and, locating 
in South Cottonwood, conducted agriculture 
there until his death in 1872, at the age of 
seventy-nine years. He possessed many ami- 
able qualities that won the friendship of his as-, 
sociates, and his deeply religious nature gave 
him high standing in the church, holding the 
office of councilman in Salt Lake City on his 
first coming to Utah, and at the time of his 
death being a high priest. He was a son of 
Michael Huffaker. whose wife, Catherine 
(Cakeley) Huffaker, died in her native land of 
Germany before he came to the United States, 
early in the Nineteenth century. The mother 
of Welby Huffaker was a native of New 
Hampshire and her marriage with Mr. Huf- 
faker occurred at Nauvoo, 111., in 1846. She 
was born on May 28, 1829, and after a long 
life of useful activity and pioneer experiences 
she is passing the closing years of her earthly 
existence at Cottonwood, Utah, having been 
the mother of fifteen children. 

Mr. Huffaker has been engaged in various 
branches of agriculture from the days of his 
childhood, at the age of twenty-two years be- 
ginning life for himself as a farmer in Salt 
Lake county, where his earnest industry was 
prospered for the two years of his residerice. 
Desirous of developing a home of his own, in 
1886 he came to Idaho and took up a pre- 
emption claim five miles above his present lo- 
cation, but soon thereafter making his resi- 
dence on his present homestead of 120 acres, 



230 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



which is located very conveniently for his oper- 
ations, on Willow Creek, about eleven miles 
northeast of Idaho Falls. His patient energy 
and earnest industry united with painstaking 
and discriminating care have wrought great 
changes on this place, and the improvements 
are marked and of a distinctively valuable 
character, the estate being under fine irriga- 
tion and productive of excellent crops, while 
the promising young orchard now in growth 
is an especially attractive feature. As a citizen 
Mr. Huffaker is considered one of the best, be- 
ing ever in accord with those public matters of 
local interest that make for the well-being of 
the community, while his political relations are 
outlined when we state that he is an earnest 
supporter of the Republican party. In church 
relations his aid is freely given, and his coun- 
sel is regarded as wise, just and conservative. 
His first marriage was in 1884 when he 
wedded with Miss Martha Winn, a native of 
Cache county. Utah, and the daughter of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Nelson) Winn, who 
came from their native state of Pennsylvania 
to Utah in early days of the settlement and 
there resided until their deaths. By this mar- 
riage were born the following children to Mr. 
Huffaker: Welbv AY.. Melvina. Maud, David, 
Nellie and Martha, deceased. He was mar- 
ried in iSofi to Miss Julia Allen, a daughter of 
Ira and Cynthia (Benson) Allen, who has been 
the mother of five children. James. Allen, 
Elam. Delilah and Ira. 

ROBERT M. HULL. 

The late Robert M. Hull, of Whitney, 
Oneida county, in this state, who with his 
nephew, William Hull, was shot to death by a 
drunken Indian on April 13. 1891, at a time 
when all the savages were supposed to 
be friendly, and when he was but fiftv- 
five vears old, and whose untimelv and 



tragic death was a shock to the whole com- 
munity wherein his life had been a bene- 
faction and an inspiration, was a native of 
the Emerald Isle, whose brave sons and fair 
daughters have been so often the theme of song 
and story, and have so enriched the world with 
talent and enterprise, female grace and lofty 
manhood, in every department of human en- 
deavor. Coming to this country at the age of 
five years and being reared and educated on its 
soil, he absorbed the spirit of American institu- 
tions and became thoroughly identified with the 
aspirations, the purposes and the interests of 
the American people. 

Making his- home at the first blush of his 
young manhood on our Western frontier, and 
barkening at once to its call for courage and 
endurance, breadth of view and determined en- 
ergy, he took his place among its force of he- 
roic workers and with patience and fidelity met 
even- duty, with fortitude and self-reliance 
confronted every danger, with resourcefulness 
and skill performed even- service involved in 
his situation. And when his end came, in the 
full maturity and vigor of his powers, after 
years of brave endurance and fruitful labor. 
with privation ever present, toil ever trying and 
the shadow of death often imminent, and when. 
too, triumph was finally won and lasting com- 
fort was assured, he met his fate, tragical as it 
was, and brutal and cowardly as were the 
means, with the same serene and lofty courage, 
the same readiness and manliness, the same 
gentleness and benignity, that he had shown in 
all of life's crises. 

Robert M. Hull was born in Ireland on 
June 10. 1839, the son of Thomas and Mary 
(Benson) Hull, who were English and Scotch 
by nativity. Soon after his birth they moved 
to Scotland and while living in that country 
they were converted to the Mormon faith, and 
in 1844 they emigrated, going to America and 
located at Pittsburg, Pa., where the father 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



231 



worked in the mines. There Robert reached 
the age of nineteen and acquired a good com- 
mon-school education. In 1858 the whole 
family started to Utah, and, after halting for 
a time at Council Bluffs, proceeded across the 
plains to their destination. They remained at 
Salt Lake until the spring of i860, he and his 
father being there employed on the construc- 
tion of the temple. 

In i860 they came to Franklin among the 
first settlers of that region, and settled on the 
father's allotment of land and began farming. 
Robert afterward took up land for himself and 
thus enlarged their farming operations. In 
1 87 1 the parents moved to Hoopersville, where 
the mother died in 1874, and a few years later 
the father took up his residence with one of 
his daughters at Weston, where he passed away 
in 1887. Their son, Robert, was married at 
Franklin, Idaho, on June 1, 1863, to Miss Mary 
A. Chadwick, a native of England, a sister of 
James Chadwick, deceased, more particular 
mention of whom will be found on another 
page. 

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hull, of 
this writing, settled at Franklin and were oc- 
cupied in farming in that neighborhood until 
1873, when they moved to the Upper Cache 
Valley, in what is now Whitney precinct. The 
country was entirely unsettled and the land was 
unsurveyed. He located a tract, and when the 
surveys were made the next year he moved 
within the proper lines and homesteaded his 
place. When the Northern Pacific Railroad 
first came to the country he took contracts in 
construction work and followed the road 
through to completion. They continued to live 
at Franklin until 1875, Mr. Hull going up to 
Whitney to farm and improve his land. In the 
year last named he built a house and moved his 
family to the ranch, and there was the family 
home during the remainder of his life. 

On April 13, 1891, while he and his 



nephew, William Hull, were in the vicinity 
of Blackfoot on their way to Idaho Falls, they 
Were killed by a drunken Indian, as has been 
stated. At this time all of the Indians were 
considered friendly and he feared no danger. 
A newspaper account published immediately 
after the terrible tragedy gives these details : 
"The unfortunate men had started for the 
Snake River country just one week before the 
caskets containing their bodies were sent to 
their former home. They were going north to 
work on some land that Robert M. Hull had 
taken up in the Snake River Valley, and where 
camped for dinner at the railroad tank, just 
outside of the village of Blackfoot. William 
Hull had washed and was cutting some meat to 
cook for their meal. Robert Hull was washing, 
when he was struck by a bullet in the head, back 
of the ear, the ball ranging upward, and the 
one that killed the nephew struck him in the 
side. The elder gentleman's death was instan- 
taneous, and William died before help could 
reach him. The Indian murderer had been 
drinking and was a bad character, only three 
weeks before this sad event selling his wife for 
a pony. After committing this double murder 
he committed suicide by shooting himself in 
the stomach." 

On previous occasions Mr. Hull had passed 
through many thrilling and soul-harrowing ex- 
periences with the Indians, and when on his 
guard was ready for almost any emergency. 
In 1865, when a number of them were camping 
near Franklin, a drunken one tried to run his 
horse over a defenseless woman at work in her 
yard, and Benjamin Chadwick, Mrs. Hull's 
brother, siezed a gun from another man and to 
save the woman shot the Indian. The other 
Indians gave a warwhoop, and Mr. Hull com- 
ing out of a field where he was at work, to 
learn what the trouble was, fell into their hands 
and they determined to take his life in revenge 
for the death of their comrade. They bound 



2 3 2 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



him in their camp and each one of the squaws 
passed him, in order to strike him with a toma- 
hawk or knife, thus giving him many wounds, 
the scars of which he carried to his grave. The 
next morning Bishop Maughan interceded for 
Air. Hull with his savage tormentors, and pre- 
vailed on them to release him. 

This was only one of the many incidents 
and hair-breadth escapes occurring in his event- 
ful life. He was a leading man in the com- 
munity, filled with the spirit of progress and 
holding the most enlightened views on all sub- 
jects in which the welfare of his people was in- 
volved, and he was ever ready with the proper 
energy and force to put his views into action. 
He was also a constant and effective worker for 
the church and was president of the council of 
elders at the time of his death. In politics he 
was a firm and steadfast Republican, being in 
the service of his party always active and in- 
fluential. In his business as a ranchman and 
farmer he was enterprising and successful. In 
the public life of the community, outside of 
political and church interests, he was an active 
working force for good in every particular. 
His ranch lies in the very center of Whittle)' 
precinct, is well located and highly improved 
and has been since his death, as it w r as before, 
a popular resort for the countless friends of the 
family, and a point of radiance for all that is 
elevating and admirable in social life and in- 
fluence. The widow is still living on it, and 
her oldest living son, Robert M. Hull, manages 
its interests and operations under her direction. 

He is one of the progressive young men of 
the precinct, conducting his farming and stock- 
raising operations with wisdom and success, 
and exemplifying in his daily life the same 
qualities of manliness and good citizenship for 
which his father was distinguished. He is a 
graduate of Brigham Young College at Logan, 
Utah, and has done excellent work for his 
church, going on a mission to Kentucky in 



1897, and on one to Oregon in 1898. He was 
married at Logan on September 24, 1902, 
to Miss Virtue Dalley, a native of Utah, daugh- 
ter of John E. Dalley, of that state, a sketch of 
whom appears on another page. The family of 
the elder Robert Hull consisted of ten children, 
Joseph T. (deceased), Sarah E. (deceased), 
Mary A. (deceased), Robert M., Margaretta 
(Mrs. Rallison). Lela E. (Mrs. Beckstead), 
Martha E. (Mrs. Dunkley). William (de- 
ceased), Alvin and LeRoy. Mary Ann Hull 
was the first one to receive a certificate to teach 
school in the precinct of Whitney, being then 
only eighteen years of age. She had very 
efficiently taught one full term and a portion of 
another when she was taken ill and died on 
September 14, 1887. 

ORVILLE BUCK. 

The intense intellectual and industrial 
energy and restlessness of New England, 
after subduing its own region to fruitfulness, 
has been for generations seeking new worlds 
to conquer, and in this way has been of im- 
mense advantage in settling, developing and 
building up the vast territorial domain of our 
country, and there is scarcely any portion of 
the North and West that has not been quick- 
ened by Yankee thrift ami Yankee ingenuity. 
Although born in the far-distant state of 
Maine. Mr. Buck has long been identified 
with the interests of eastern Idaho, where he 
was one of the early pioneers of the present 
county of Bingham, being the first individual 
to make a permanent home in the beautiful 
Willow Creek Valley, and also being the first 
person to take out an irrigating ditch for real 
agricultural purposes in the Upper Snake 
River Valley, while from the pioneer epoch he 
has ever shown himself possessed of those 
sturdy qualities which win success, even from 
unpropitious surroundings and environment. 




<^j^ d?^L 




'JL. Oh. $&*4\ 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



being one who may rightly be classed with 
those who have SO' solidly laid the foundations 
of the present prosperity of this great state, 
of which he is one of the founders and build- 
ers, and also one of the honored pioneers and 
prominent citizens of Bingham county. 

Orville Buck, now a leading stockman of 
the county of his residence, was born on 
August 7, 1828, at Brickfield, Me., the 
same quiet rural town that gave birth to the 
recent United States secretary of the navy, 
Hon. John D. Long, his parents being Elisha 
and Caroline (Bridg-ham) Buck, the father 
having been born, in the same county of Ox- 
ford, where the grandfather, Nathaniel Buck, 
was one of the original settlers in the deep 
pine forests, where it was necessary to go 
forty miles to mill, his early ownership of 
land and his settlement therein giving- his 
name to the town when it was organized. 
The father, born in 1792, was a veteran of the 
war of 1812 and an unswerving Democrat in 
political creed. He lived an eminently useful 
life in his native county until his death, in 
1854, while the mother, born in 1796, died 
at the remarkable age of ninety-nine years,, 
and three of her twelve children are now 
alive. 

The early years of the venerated subject 
of this article were passed in the healthful and 
invigorating atmosphere of a true New Eng- 
land home and he remained on the paternal 
homestead for some years after the death of 
his father, thereafter passing fourteen busy 
years in Connecticut as the superintendent of 
the fine estate of a: Mr. Arnold, in 1873 com- 
ing to the locality of his present home and 
being the first man to locate a residence on 
Willow Creek', only one other man locating at 
this time in this whole county, a Mr. George 
Heath. On Willow Creek Mr. Buck availed 
himself of his rights of citizenship and filed 
upon and came into possession of a splendid 



property for stockraising purposes, situated 
fourteen miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 
where, by his enterprising- efforts, his wise 
and discriminating judgment and persistent 
and unceasing labors, he has developed one 
of the best arranged and suitably improved" 
places for carrying on the special branch of 
husbandry which he has taken in hand, and 
is now in possession of a country estate of 
160 acres, which is both valuable and pro- 
ductive. Here his occupation, has been the 
raising of fine herds of cattle of a superior 
breed, Shorthorns being his favorite stock, 
and of which he is the owner of some ex- 
tremely valuable specimens. ■ Mr. Buck has 
ever taken a great interest in the principles 
and the. policies for which the Democratic 
party stands sponsor, and has given valiant 
service in its various campaigns, never, how- 
ever, accepting a nomination for an election 
to office, or an appointment to any distinctive 
office of trust, his time and energies being- 
given freely as a loyal citizen for the success 
of the cause he deems best adapted to rightly 
conduct the ship of state in the whirlpool of 
events. 

Mr. Buck married, on March 31, 1854, 
with Miss Helen M. Heald, a native of Maine 
and a daughter of Israel and Jane (Standish) 
Heald, the father having been born in Maine, 
a son of Benjamin Heald, a native of Massa- 
chusetts, while the mother was a daug-'hter of 
Miles and Rebecca (Bradford) Standish, of 
Plymouth origin and lineal descendants of the 
historic Miles Standish of Mayflower fame. 
Mr. and Mrs. Buck have seven children, 
Alice, Winthrop, James A., John H., Ellis, 
George A. and Helen. Mr. Buck has 
watched the onward march of progress until 
the once wilderness places now re-echo with 
the tramp of civilized people, homes and com- 
munities growing under his eyes in richness 
and prosperity, while the on-moving years 



236 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



have brought wealth and comfort to himself 
and'family, while the reverence of a vast num- 
ber of people is bestowed upon him. In or 
before 1880 Mr. Buck was the leading spirit 
in the erection of the little log school in the 
'Willow Creek district, the first structure for 
educational purposes constructed within the 
territory now embraced in Bingham and Fre- 
mont counties, which was built by subscrip- 
tion under Mr. Buck's supervision and forever 
after bore the -name of the Buck schoolhouse. 

JOHN P. HUTCHISON. 

We have often had occasion to remark in 
the review of prominent and distinguished 
people that no country in the whole of Europe 
lias furnished better material for the upbuild- 
ing of civilization in the new lands of the 
Great West than has that rugged and moun- 
tainous country. Scotland. The sons she has 
given to America have been mostly men of 
strong minds and strong bodies, industrious, 
hard-working, law-abiding and useful citizens, 
and in mentioning the fact that Mr. Hutchi- 
son was born in Scotland, it is unnecessary to 
further state the reason of his universal pop- 
ularity and the uniform esteem and confidence 
in which he is held by his friends and busi- 
ness associates. 

For many years and for many generations 
has the Hutchison family been residents of 
Scotland, and there, at Kilwinin, occurred the 
birth of John P. Hutchison on February 5. 
[862, he being a son of William and Jane 
(Penman) Hutchison, his father having been 
identified with coalmining- operations in Scot- 
land until the family emigration to the United 
States, his long journey across the Atlantic 
and the broad expanse of the American conti- 
nent to the ultimate location in Utah in 1866 
being caused by his devotion to the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with 



which the family had cast in their fortunes 
and become identified. In Utah the family 
home was made in Coalville, Summit county 
where he maintained his home until his death, 
his abilities and religious fervor causing his 
elevation to the position of high priest of his 
church. He long survived his wife, who died 
on the plains of Wyoming in 1864. when her 
son John P.. the youngest of her nine chil- 
dren, was but two years of age, and where, in 
Carbon county, she now lies awaiting the res- 
urrection. 

John P. Hutchison shared the fortunes of 
his father's family until after the death of his 
parents, first engaging in labor on his own ac- 
count at Cottonwood Common. Utah, where 
he engaged in timber operations for about 
two years, thence removing to Salt Lake City 
and six years later, then being only seve teen 
years of age, to Idaho, locating in Cassia 
a lunty, then a part of Oneida, where he re- 
mained for three years in the successful prose- 
cution of cattleherding, at the end of that 
period of time transferring his headquarters 
and his interests to the Snake River country. 
where he purchased a ranch of 160 acres and 
located in 1800. The land was in the state 
of nature and the present improvements so 
indicative of taste and business applicability 
of its proprietor are entirely his own work, 
and here his property is rapidly attaining 
large proportions, and he is running- a select 
herd of sixty-eight thoroughbred Durham 
cattle. 

Mr. Pfutchison is a public spirited person, 
earnest and energetic in forwarding and car- 
rying out to completion all matters of a social 
or general nature which tend to the elevation 
and advancement of the people of his com 
munity. his comity or his state. He is known 
as an active, vigorous man of great Fori 
character and strong individuality, and is one 
of the solid men on whom the prosperity of 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



23/ 



the countv largely depends. It was on No- 
vember 24, 1887, that his marriage occurred 
with Miss Mary K. Dolson, a native of Illi- 
nois and a daughter of Alpheus and Mai"}' 
(Cherry) Dolson, her father having been 
born in January. 1823, in Indiana, and after 
sixty-four years of useful activity dying on 
June 16, 1887, at Butte, Mont. Her mother, 
who was a native of Illinois, was born on Sep- 
tember 30, 1836, and died on June 28, 1873, a * 
Clinton, Iowa, and she was the mother of 
eleven children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hutchison have had these 
children: John W., Edwin N., Carl P., Frank 
C, Jessie M. and Alva A. who died on March 
28, 1897, at the age of one year and seven 
days, and was buried at Riverside cemetery. 
In all national, state and political questions 
Mr. Hutchison follows the leadership and 
principles of the Democratic party, but is con- 
tented to leave the struggle for office and po- 
litical positions to others, preferring to de- 
vote his time to its entirety to the management 
of his own personal affairs. As a citizen and 
as a man Mr. Hutchison occupies a high po- 
sition in the regard of his associates and 
friends, his family being one of the representa- 
tive ones of his section of the county. 

BISHOP ANDREW INGELSTROM. 

Incessant motion and activity are character- 
istic of life in every department of the uni- 
verse ; one generation of people comes upon the 
stage of action, performs its part in the econ- 
omy of nature and passes away; one by one 
they must retire from the field of action and 
leave the work to other hands, and in the com- 
ing afterward of others to take their place will 
be demonstrated the truth that institutions ap- 
parently of man's creations are really of Divine 
origin, and far greater than the men, to whose 
thought and care they apparently owe their be- 



ginning and their aftergrowth. Men may 
come and men may go, but the work they do 
lives after them, and the institutions they plant 
or aid in establishing live after they are gath- 
ered to their fathers. 

Here and there, however, will be found in 
every community exceptions to the common 
rule, men whose natural force of character and 
whose distinctive energy cause them to be most 
forceful factors in holding and forming the 
community in which they may reside, their in- 
fluence, whether for good or evil, being most 
marked, not only in their own generation but 
upon the characters of those who will follow 
them. These considerations come to us when 
considering the life and activities of Bishop 
Andrew O. Ingelstrom, whose home is located 
at Basalt, Bingham county, Idaho, where in 
temporal matters he is conducting general 
merchandising, having a fine line of all the de- 
partments of goods demanded by and appli- 
cable to this section of the country where he 
maintains his residence, meeting with a large 
and rapidly extending patronage as from year 
to year the population of the section is growing 
larger and larger. 

Bishop Ingelstrom is now a resident far 
from the land of his birth, for, although of 
German ancestry, he was born in the little 
kingdom of Sweden, on October 10, 1853, 
being a son of Ole and Ilgena (Anderson) In- 
gelstrom, his father being a native of Sweden, 
of German descent. Bishop Ingelstrom at- 
tained maturity in Sweden, where he acquired 
his preliminary educational training in the ex- 
cellent national schools, and, being a man of 
more than ordinary thought, studying often 
over the problems of existence and the life to 
come, he was in a fitting mood to receive the 
advice of one of the sterling missionaries of 
the Mormon faith, and, in becoming acquainted 
with the doctrines of which that faith stands 
sponsor, he found himself in hearty accord 



2 3 8 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



therewith, and in 1876 united with that church. 
He was soon ordained an elder of that faith and 
was engaged in missionary work for two years, 
thereafter, in 1879, coming to Salt Lake, Utah. 

In 1885 he was made a presiding elder over 
Cedar Point branch, the same year he came to 
Basalt, where he availed himself of the gen- 
erous opportunities afforded by the government 
and secured a homestead right of sixty-seven 
acres, and at once engaged in the development 
of the land and in farming operations, his es- 
tate now being well-improved and productive, 
and 1 if which he still retains the ownership. In 
1897, seeing the need of a merchandising es- 
tablishment at Basalt, he devoted his energies 
to the establishing of a store, in the conducting 
of which he has since been engaged, showing 
a thorough understanding and appreciation of 
the principles underlying' correct commercial 
life, and being prospered in this, as in his other 
secular undertakings, his stock increasing from 
year to year as the growth of the section de- 
mands. 

On August 19, 1888, Mr. Ingelstrom was 
made the bishop of Basalt ward and of this 
high office he is the present incumbent, being 
held in high esteem and exercising a great in- 
fluence for good in the community. In politi- 
cal relations he holds with the Democratic 
party, and is thoroughly alive and awake to 
everything that tends to the advancement and 
prosperity and moral gain of the community, 
and, notwithstanding the high position which 
he occupies, there is not one of the humblest 
people of the county who is more affable, un- 
pretentious or more accessible. On January 1. 
1880. occurred the marriage of Bishop Ingel- 
strom and Miss Mary E. Jacobson, a native of 
Sweden, who came to Utah in 1879, and they 
are parents of nine children : Anna, now Mrs. 
D. R. Johnson, Ilgena, Elizabeth, Hilma, 
Abraham (deceased), Emma, Sarah. Charles 
and Eli. 



Bishop Ingelstrom is noted for his breadth 
of view, his hospitality and his charity, and 
there are many who would gratefully testify to 
his ready help, his consistent sympathy, bis 
warm affection and his unfailing friendship. 
In everything, whether in social, business, po- 
litical or religious life, he follows the dictates 
of his judgment and his conscience. This is 
not the language of eulogy, but of simple truth, 
for there is no man in the county who stands 
in higher esteem than does this worthy bishop 
of Basalt ward. 

SAMUEL HUMPHERYS. 

The good motherland of England was the 
birthplace of this popular, conscientious and 
useful citizen of Bear Lake county, Idaho, 
where, after years of diligent labor success- 
fully conducted in the intermountain region 
of the Great West, he is now residing in the 
pleasant town of Dingle, retired from the 
active duties of physical labors, but devoting 
himself to the beneficent enterprises of his 
church and of the people, and attending to 
the duties appertaining to the office of justice 
of the peace, of which he has recently been 
made the incumbent. 

Mr. Humpherys was born in Mansfield. 
Nottinghamshire, England, on January 21, 
1846, a son of Thomas and Mary (Sudbury) 
Humpherys, and as a child he accompanied 
his parents on their emigration from England 
in 1853. they coming to St. Louis. Mo., where 
in November of the same year he was 
orphaned by the death of his father. The 
widowed mother and family continued their 
journey to Salt Lake City, the mother from 
there removing to < >gden, later to Springville 
and later still . to Paris. Bear Lake county. 
Idaho, where, on May 20. 1876, she closed her 
eyes in her last long sleep. 

Mr. Humpherys early began life for him- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



239 



self as a ranch hand, in which capacity he 
continued to be engaged until he was thirty 
years of age, when, having acquired a com- 
fortable financial reinforcement, he became 
the proprietor of a dairy farm, which he profit- 
ably conducted for fourteen years, thereafter 
coming to Dingle, Idaho, about the first of 
January, 1876, and locating on a ranch, which 
he most diligently cultivated and improved 
until it was in a high and profitable state of 
culture. This property he has recently sold 
and now his residence is in the town of Dingle, 
where he has an attractive residence. He has 
ever been an earnest watcher of the course of 
public and local matters, like a good citizen 
contributing his full quota to all matters of 
public improvement, and he maintains a high 
standing in the community for the disinter- 
ested character of his charitable and beneficent 
endeavors, his church receiving a full share of 
his time, and in turn honoring him with re- 
sponsible office, calling him to fill the bishop's 
chair, which he has worthily done for sixteen 
years, to be a member of the High Council of 
the Stake, and to act in many and varying 
minor ecclesiastical offices. 

On October 7, 1876, Bishop Humpherys 
wedded with Miss Mary M. Clifto-?, a daugh- 
ter of John and Hannah (Pettinger) Clifton, 
the father emigrating from England and com- 
ing to America in 1859, the mother and 
family coming in i860. They resided at 
Hunter's Point, N. Y., for one year, then, 
as they were members of the Church of Lat- 
ter Day Saints, they came to Willard, Box 
Elder county, Utah, in 1863 making their per- 
manent home at Paris, Idaho, where the father 
now resides, the mother dying on May 20, 
1876. Seven children have blessed the mar- 
riage union of Mr. and Mrs. Humpherys, 
namely: Samuel G., born March 5, 1878; 
Mary E.,'born October 29, 1880; Emma S., 
born January 27, 1883 ; Jessie, born December 



12, 1888, deceased; Viny, born February 7, 
1890; Phoebe M., born September 28, 1895; 
Iva M., born October 17, 1898. 

JAMES IRWIN. 

Some of the brighest pages of history tell 
of the devotion, the courage and the indomita- 
ble intrepidity of the people of the northern 
part of Ireland, who, as Scotch-Irish, have 
been held in high esteem and veneration on 
account of their courageous resistance to re- 
ligious persecution, their many virtues and 
their labor-loving character. To this class 
belongs James Irwin, now a prominent and 
intelligent farmer of Bingham county, Idaho, 
where he is maintaining his home and exten- 
sive agricultural operations on a productive 
ranch located seven miles northeast of Idaho 
Falls. His paternal ancestors originally came 
from Scotland, the family deriving its name 
from the river Irwin, but the birthplace of 
James Irwin was in County Antrim, Ireland, 
where he was born on November 13, 1839, as 
a son of Robert and Margaret (Robinson) 
Irwin. His father was also a native of County 
Antrim, who, reared a farmer, in early man- 
hood engaged in business operations at Bel- 
fast, which he prosperously conducted until 
his death on January 23, 1884, at the age of 
sixty-seven years. His father, Robert, was 
also a native of County Antrim, where he died 
in 1868, at the advanced age of over eig'hty 
years. The mother of the subject of this writ- 
ing was born in the same county of Ireland, 
a daughter of James Robinson. He was both 
a tailor and a farmer, and, dying at the age of 
forty-seven years, was long survived by his 
widow, Margaret (Huston) Robinson, who 
died in her native country of Ireland in 1862 
at the remarkable age of ninety-seven years. 

James Irwin received the best educational 
advantages of the city of Belfast, Ireland, and. 



240 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



being his father's only son. lie assisted in his 
business operations until the death of the 
father. Thereafter, in 1884, he came to Utah 
and located for a year at Coalville, thence re- 
moving to Bingham county, Idaho, and secur- 
ing the nucleus of his present highly improved 
ranch by homesteading, in 1886, 160 acres of 
' government land, to which he has since added 
until his landed estate now consists of 320 
acres in a highly improved state of cultivation, 
being peculiarly favored with irrigation and 
possessing a fine orchard of thrifty fruit trees. 
Mr. Irwin has given close and personal at- 
tention to all departments of his business, 
and is prominently connected with various ir- 
rigation companies, and his herds of cattle 
contain some beautiful specimens of finely 
bred animals. A public-spirited citizen, he 
has performed the duties of a school trustee 
in his school district with conceded ability, 
and is a member of the Democratic political 
party, laboring earnestly for the success of 
its candidates and principles. 

On February 2S, 1865, in Glasgow, Scot- 
land, the rites of holy matrimony were cele- 
brated which united Mr. Irwin and Miss Mar- 
garet McCarthy, she being also a native of 
Ireland, and a daughter of Charles and Jane 
(Robinson) McCarthy. Her paternal grand- 
father. Charles McCarthy, was prepared for 
and entered college, but when sixteen years of 
age he ran away from home and was never 
heard of again, and no subsequent knowledge 
of him was obtained. Her father, also Charles 
McCarthy, emigrated from his native land of 
■Ireland to the United States in 1884, and 
made his home in Coalville. Utah, but his 
residence there was short, for three years later, 
in 1887, he was called away by death at the 
age nf sixty-seven years, being survived by his 
wife, who died at Salt Lake City at the age of 
seventy-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Irwin are 
the parents of the following children: Robert, 



Margaret, James, Charles, Sarah, John. 
Thomas L., Edward and Mary. In all the 
relations of life Mr. and Mrs. Irwin retain a 
most exemplary relation and the number of 
their friends extends as far as the range of 
their acquaintance. 

HIRAM S. JACOBS. 

Hiram S. Jacobs was born on March 6. 
1S60, at Lehi City, Utah, the son of Simon 
and Sarah (Hopkins) Jacobs, and for twenty 
years he has been a resident of Idaho, having 
come to this state in 1883. He took up a 
homestead in Cache county, near Newton. 
Utah, and owned it until 1898, when he sold it 
and started the business of building canals for 
irrigation by contract. He now has a number 
of important contracts in Montana and more 
in Idaho. For this work he organized the first 
canal construction company in the state and be- 
came its first president, and under his direction 
the first canal line in Idaho was sun-eyed. He 
was also the first dealer in imported hogs in 
the state and sold his product all over its terri- 
tory, Berkshire hogs being his favorite breed. 
He takes a warm interest and a prominent part 
in local politics as a Republican, and has served 
his people well as a school trustee and in var- 
ious other local offices. He has been closely 
identified with the cause of public education in 
every way, giving his time and influence freely 
to its advancement, aiding materially in build- 
ing up public sentiment in its favor and provid- 
ing schoolhouses and other proper appliances 
for its work. 

Mr. Jacobs was also deputy sheriff in the 
early days, when Fremont county was still a 
part of Bingham, and when peace and order 
were matters of compulsion rather than choice 
with a large number of the people. In relig- 
ious belief he is an ardent Mormon and is an 
elder in the church. He descended from an old 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



241 



Norwegian family, his father having come 
from Norway to Chicago with his parents at 
the age of four years. From there he crossed 
the plains to California in 1848, and after two 
years of hard and unremunerative labor in the 
gold fields of that then new Eldorado, he re- 
moved to near Lehi, Utah, and engaged in 
farming until 1883, when he came to Idaho 
and took up a homestead, on which he died in 
1890, at the age of sixty-three years. His 
widow, whose maiden name was Sarah Hop- 
kins, and who was a native of Ohio, is still liv- 
ing at the age of sixty-eight, and makes her 
home at Salem. 

On October 30, 1879,. at Salt Lake City, 
Utah, Mr. Jacobs married with Miss Caroline 
Nelson, who was born at Lehi, in that state, 
the daughter of James, and Karn (Benson) Nel- 
son, natives of Denmark, who came to Utah in 
1858, crossing the plains with ox teams, and 
settling near Lehi. Her father died at New- 
ton, Utah, in 1874, aged eighty years, and nine 
years later the mother came with her family to 
Idaho, where she died in 1890, at the age of 
sixty-six years. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs have had 
nine children, seven of whom are living": 



Hiram Wallace, born April 23, li 



Ada K. 



born May 3, 1884; Sarah Maud, born Decem- 
ber 2, 1886; Pollie Lillian, born February 22, 
1889; Swen Howard, born May 27, 1891 ; 
Hazel Jane, born April 13, 1894, and Vera 
May, born May 11, 1901. Caroline, Florence 
and Roland James are deceased. 

Mr. Jacobs was the discoverer of the Kem- 
merer coal, and on the land where he first 
found it in Wyoming there is now a large and 
profitable mine. He made the discovery in 
188 1, and two years later sold the property 
after making some improvements and an effort 
at developing the mine. He was defrauded out 
of his claim, however, and turned his attention 
to quartz mining, in which he has interests in 
Fremont county, Idaho, where he now resides 



near Salem. He is highly esteemed, both as a 
citizen and as a business man, and has a potent 
influence among his fellows of all classes. 

ANDREW JACOBSEN. 

Andrew Jacobsen, of Bloomington, Bear 
Lake county, a prominent worker in the 
Church of the Latter Day Saints, is a native of 
Denmark, where he was bora in 1831, a son 
of Jacob and Maren (Larson)' Andersen, also 
Danes by nativity, and descendants of old 
Danish families. Their lives were passed in 
their native country, and in the faithful and 
unostentatious discharge of the daily duties 
which came before them. After reaching 
years of maturity and working for a time in 
various capacities in Denmark, Mr. Jacob- 
sen came to the United States in 1863, and 
making his way to Utah, located in Cache Val- 
ley for a few months. In the spring of 1864 
he removed to Montpelier, Idaho, where he 
lived three years, and then moved to Bloom- 
ington, where he has since resided. 

For some years before he left the old 
country he was identified with the work of the 
church in an active and leading manner, and 
he then felt impelled by its interests and his 
convictions to emigrate and make his home in 
Utah, for the purpose of being in closer touch 
with the central government and of the 
church that he might be. more effective in his 
labors. Before he came, however, he had been 
ordained a priest and had served well in that 
capacity. For three years after his arrival he 
served as deacon at Montpelier, and then came 
to Bloomington, where he passed seven years 
as a teacher. 

Mr. Jacobsen was ordained as hig"h priest 
in the year that Brigham Young died, and 
held the position of a member of the high 
council for twenty-one years. At the end of 
that time he was released, and set apart to 



24- 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



travel among the Scandinavians, and lie still 
occupies that relation to the church work. 
While not an active partisan, he leans to the 
Republican faith in politics, and gives his 
party a loyal but judicious support. He was 
sent to Detroit,' Mich., in 1886, as a representa- 
tive of the church in reference to the subject of ' 
plural marriage. 

In 1869 he went to Salt Lake City and 
was there married with Johanna Christen- 
sen. a native of Denmark. She died in 
1885. leaving six children. He contracted a 
second marriage in 1872. being then united 
with Christina Christensen. a native of Den- 
mark, where she was born on December 21, 
1857. the daughter of Jens and Marie (Dor- 
othea) Christensen. She left her native 
country on account of her devotion to the 
Mormon faith in 1871, and came to Cache 
Valley. Utah, and in 1873, the next year after 
her marriage, she came to Bear Lake county, 
Idaho, with her husband and has been living 
at their Bloomington home ever since. They 
have nine living children, Mary G, James C, 
Andrew M., Nels A., Lorenzo W., Carlos L.. 
Arthur L., Joseph C, and Louvernia. Three 
others, Andrew, Mina and Abraham, are de- 
ceased and are buried at Bloomington. 

Mr. Jacobsen has been blessed and pros- 
pered in his religious work, and has seen the 
fruits of it in the advancement of the church 
interests and in the improvement of his peo- 
ple. He has won something of even an 
earthly reward also, in securing, through his 
zeal and fidelity, a high and enviable place in 
the confidence and esteem of those among 
whom he has lived and labored with such con- 
stancy and diligence. 

JOSEPH DICK. 

One of the progressive farmers of his sec- 
tion of the state is Joseph Dick, whose highly 



improved and productive homestead of 
acres of land is located three miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls. He was born on August 25, 
1858. in the kingdom of Hungary, Europe, 
being a son of Louis and Fannie (Stanger) 
Dick. Louis Dick, a representative of an old 
line of Hungarian families, was a son 1 if 
Morro Dick, and. like him, conducted fann- 
ing and stockraising on the magnificent 
prairies of his native land, dying there after 
a useful activity in 1891, at the age of seventy- 
one years. His mother, a practical woman of 
superior business abilities, is still living in 
her native land, being the mother of seven 
children, of whom four are dead, and Joseph is 
the only son of the family. 

After thoroughly acquiring the methods 
of farming and stockraising upon his father's 
estate, at the age of twenty-three years, 
Joseph Dick emigrated from Hungary to the 
United States, landing in the city of Xew 
York in the spring of 1882. After one year's 
residence there he came direct to Utah, where. 
after a stop in Salt Lake City of somewhat 
over a year, he came to Bingham count} - . 
Idaho, here establishing his permanent home 
and field of operations by homesteading 160 
acres of government land, to which he has 
since added, until now he has a productive and 
valuable estate of 560 acres, to which he has 
given great attention. By wise care and 
discriminating efforts he has made valuable 
improvements each- year for the successful 
operations of the various branches of agri- 
culture he is here profitably conducting. 
which consists of general farming, the rais- 
ing of cattle, horses and hoys. and. since 1893, 
a profitable dairy business. 

Mr. Dick is thoroughly competent to con- 
duct any or all of these industries, and can 
show a herd of thoroughbred Durham and 
Hereford cattle that would excite admiration 
anvwhere. Fraternally he is a member of the 




JOSEPH DICK. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



245 



Modern Woodmen of the World. In the fall 
of 1882 Mr. Dick was married, at New York 
City, with Miss Anna Gyurkovics, also a native 
of Hungary and a daughter of Emeri and 
Evan (Terry) Gyurkovics ; the father still 
resides in their native land, while the mother 
died in 1896. Their family consists of the 
following children : Eliott, Fanny, Mora. 
Samuel, Sarah, Simpson, and Rose and Pearl, 
deceased, who are buried at Idaho Falls. In 
this connection we would incidentally remark 
that Mr. Dick has surely no reason to re- 
gret the great change he has made in coming 
from the beautiful and fertile Hungary to the 
new lands of the new world and his friends 
in his new residence are unnumbered, as are 
his acquaintances. 

On August 12, 1903, while fording the 
Snake River near Conant, Idaho, he was 
drowned. With his son, Elliott, while trying 
to locate a range, they were obliged to ford the 
river. The son had crossed in safety when the 
horse he rode broke loose and recrossed the 
stream. The father, in attempting to again 
get the horse over, was caught by- the swift 
and treacherous current and drowned, his 
body floating about three and a half miles 
down the river before it was rescued, nine and 
a half days afterward. The Mutual Life In- 
surance Co., of New York, held an insurance 
policy of $1,000 on his life. 

A. H. JACKSON. 

The Jackson family has ever been a family 
•of pioneers, and in this volume, intended to 
preserve for future generations something of 
the people who have developed and are develop- 
ing the Idaho of today, it is of importance to 
state something of the ancestral history of 
those of whom we write, that the conditions 
surrounding their birth, their childhood and 
their youth, may be properly understood in the 



consideration of their lives. For several gen- 
erations the parental ancestors of Mr. Jackson 
have made their home in new 'lands and unde- 
veloped countries, creating homes for them- 
selves and others out of the wild and dangerous 
surroundings and preparing the way for others 
to follow in serenity and peace. 

A. H. Jackson, now a prosperous resident 
of Bingham county, Idaho, was born on Sep- 
tember 26, 1840, in Toronto, Canada, a son of 
Isaac and Eleanor (Eckert) Jackson, his father 
being a native of New York, who, when a 
youth of eighteen years, settled in the heavy 
forests of Prince Edward Island, where, by 
long years of diligent and persevering activity, 
he developed a fine farm and a pleasant home. 
His was one of the first axes to resound in the 
dense woods of that section and all of the de- 
privations and hardships of a pioneer life were 
experienced by himself and family, and here he 
died in i860, at the age of seventy-six years, an 
honest and revered citizen of the township of 
Howell. His second wife, the mother of the 
one of whom we are writing, was the daughter 
of Tunis Eckert, a Canadian farmer in the 
German concession, who bore her husband 
eleven children, surviving him ten years, and 
dying at the age of seventy-six years. 

A. H. Jackson passed his early years in the 
new country of his father's Canadian home, 
giving faithful labor in the paternal sendee un- 
til he was of age, his father dying about that 
time, and he thereafter continued at labor in 
Canada until April, 1864, when his pioneering 
spirit led him to cross the continent and make 
his home in the West. Locating at Granger 
Station, in the present state of Wyoming, in 
May, 1864, he at once entered the service of 
the Western Union Telegraph Co. for one year, 
then conducted merchandising in association 
with LaFayette Granger at a trading post in 
Porter until 1870, when, removing to Rush 
Valley, Utah, he there engaged in mining 



-46 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



operations for four years, when the flattering 
reports of gold discoveries in South America 
drew him thither for a short period. Upon 
his return, he was engaged in varying employ- 
ments until 1879, the year of his coming to the 
present Idaho, he then removing to that portion 
of Oneida county since segregated and organ- 
ized into Fremont county, two years thereafter 
making his home in Bingham county, in 188 1 
filing upon a homestead of 160 acres on Willow 
Creek, eleven miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 
where he has since maintained his home, show- 
ing marked taste and. great industry in the de- 
velopment of his place and running a fine herd 
of cattle. 

His farming operations are conducted with 
skill and discrimination, and one of the excel- 
lent features of the ranch is the thrifty young 
orchard, which is a splendid manifestation of 
the horticultural knowledge of its owner, and 
gives promise of exceeding productiveness. In 
political relations Mr. Jackson finds himself in 
harmony with the Socialist party, he believ- 
ing that its principles, if carried into full opera- 
tion, would result in a greatly improved condi- 
tion of the people of the entire country. 

The marriage of Mr. Jackson with his ca- 
pable wife, then Miss Helena Andrus, occurred 
on September 17, 1875, at Big Cottonwood. 
Utah, where she was born, being the daughter 
of Milo and Emma E. (Covert) Andrus, who 
came to Utah as early Mormon pioneers, there 
passing the remainder of their lives, winning 
the esteem of the community by their well- 
ordered lives. The family of this worthy 
couple consists of the following named chil- 
dren : Theodore, Lafayette. Bertha, Edna. 
Claude and Ray. 

DAVID JENSEN. 

A pioneer of 1866 in Oneida county, and of 
187^ in the neighborhood of Preston, and one 



of the very earliest settlers at each place, his 
first location in the county being at Franklin. 
David Jensen has had good opportunity to aid 
in the development of this portion of the state 
and has used it wisely. He is a native of Nor- 
way, born on April 15, 1835, as the son of 
Jens and Galena (Olson) Jensen, also Norwe- 
gians. They were farmers in their native land 
and there remained until their death, that of 
the father occurring in 1839, and that of the 
mother in 1865. Their son, David, was reared 
and educated in Norway, and after his school 
days he was engaged in farming until he was 
twenty-seven years old. when he embraced the 
Mormon religion, and in the spring of 1863 
emigrated, coming to America, and crossing 
the plains with ox teams, arriving at Salt Lake 
City on December 24th of the same year. From 
there he went directly to Lehi, where he took 
up land and was occupied in farming until 
1866. He was an early settler of Franklin, 
Idaho, where his allotment of land was about 
twenty-six acres. He farmed this land until 
1875. when he came to Preston and located on 
the ranch which is now his home, about three 
and one-half miles northwest of the town. 
Here he has since resided and been diligent and 
faithful in farming operations, aiding als> > in 
the development and improvement of the coun- 
try round about him. Under bis persistent 
and well-applied industry his land has improved 
in condition and increased in value until it is 
one of the best in this part of the county, and 
his flocks and herds have multiplied in num- 
bers and been raised in standard until they are 
among the most valuable within a wide range 
of country. 

Mr. Jensen has always had a deep interest 
in public affairs, although he has never taken 
an active part in conducting them. But in 
church matters he has been both interested and 
active. t Mr. Jensen is one of the representative 
citizens of the section of the countv in which 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



247 



he lives, and is highly respected by all classes 
of the people there, and elsewhere wherever he 
is known. He was counsellor for the first bishop 
of this ward, Bishop Porter, and was also the 
first superintendent of its Sunday school. He 
was married in June, 186 1, in Norway, to Miss 
Bertha Serang Peterson, like himself a native 
of that country. They had eight children, 
Sarah, Hiram H., Oscar, Nora, Antoine, C. 
Frederick, Joseph W. and N. Richard. Their 
mother died in 1884, and on November .2, 
1897, he was married to a second wife, Miss 
Leonora Finlan, who died on June 10, 1903. 

ALPHA L. JAQUES. 

In the days of the future, when the Great 
West shall have become a densely populated 
country, the descendants of those heroic 
pioneers, who in search of freedom in which 
to worship God according to the conscience 
dared the countless perils of the long journey 
over a thousand miles of desert wilderness, 
beset with hostile Indians, coming with slow 
moving ox teams, or, more dangerous still, 
drawing their handcarts over the same roads, 
will tell with reverence and permissible pride 
the story of their sufferings, and the world will 
look upon their achievements as we of today 
look upon the landing at Plymouth Rock and 
the settling of Massachusetts by the devoted 
Pilgrims. Only the sufferings of the Pilgrims 
were not so severe, and they had not to encom- 
pass the miles on miles of weary, footsore travel 
that fell to the lot of the Mormon immigrants. 
The descendants of Alpha L. Jaques, now a res- 
ident of Salem ward, Fremont county, Idaho, 
will be of that honored company, since his 
parents were members of one of these historic 
and heroic bands, and his birth on August 
27, 1856, near Florence, Neb., occurred while 
thev were on their journey, his parents, John 
and Zilpha (Loder) Jaques, being members of 



one o-f the handcart companies of 1856 that 
suffered severe privations on the way. In 
Utah they made their home at Salt Lake City, 
where the father first engaged in carpentry 
and was later on the editorial staff of the 
Desert News for a period of twenty years, his 
death occurring in 1900 at seventy-four years 
of age, the mother still maintaining her resi- 
dence in Salt Lake City. 

Receiving the excellent educational ad- 
vantages of the Salt Lake City schools until 
he was twenty years of age. Alpha L. Jaques 
then became his own master, and learning 
of the manifold advantages of the Upper 
Snake River Valley for a man of energy and 
industry, he came hither in 1885, while it was 
yet a widespread wilderness, with a few crude 
cabins and small patches of cleared land to 
indicate the few first footprints of civilization. 
From that time he has been a worker in 
the grand service of transformation which has 
here been wrought, a public-spirited citizen 
whose hand and purse have ever been ready 
to respond to the calls of public necessity of 
private need. Locating at Salem, he pur- 
chased eighty acres of favorably located 
land, engaged in farming operations here and 
conducted and established himself in a cumu- 
lative and remunerative sheepraising in- 
dustry. He was an earnest laborer in the at- 
tempts to bring water to the parched land 
through irrigation, aiding in the building of 
the Rexburg and the Salem canals, and for 
several years was both a director and the 
president of the Salem Canal Co. Viewing 
political and national matters from the view- 
point of the Republican party, he has given 
time and attention to the furtherance of its 
principles in its campaigns and at the polls, 
and has accepted and held with conceded abil- 
ity the office of school trustee. 

His marriage with Amy Ricks, a daughter 
of Thomas E. and Amy (Loder) Ricks, oc- 



2 4 S 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



curred on November i, 1874. and for her 
proud ancestral record we refer the reader to 
the sketch of her distinguished father else- 
where in this volume. A family of eight win- 
some children has come to the home of Mr. 
and Mrs. Jaques. Alpha R.. Zilpha. Amy. John, 
Flora. Thomas. Minnie and Leslie. In so- 
cial, society and church circles the family holds 
a representative place, the best qualities of 
their revered ancestors demonstrating their 
fitness for any position Fortune may have in 
store for them, numerous friends enjoying the 
warm and cordial hospitality so freely dis- 
pensed at their attractive home. 

JOSEPH JEXSFX. 

In making a record touching the careers 
of those representative citizens of the state of 
Idaho who are conspicuously identified with 
her industrial life and who have served in po- 
sitions of public trust and responsibility, there 
is signal proprietv in offerirg a review of the 
life history of Mr. Joseph Jensen, who is at 
the present time a popular county commis- 
sioner of Bingham county, whose productive 
home is located in the Goshen district, two 
miles from that place, which is his postoffice 
address. Mr. Jensen is one of the native sons 
of the West whose intelligence, enterprise, in- 
tegrity and industry have done so much to 
ward developing the resources that have lain 
dormant, and for so many years undeveloped, 
in the new lands of the country of their birth. 
He was born at Hyrum, Utah, on September 
19. 1866, a son of Jens and Hannah (Hansen) 
Jensen, natives of Denmark, who hecame ac- 
quainted with the doctrines of Mormonism 
through the zealous missionaries of that faith 
that were engaged as missionaries in propa- 
gating its doctrines in their native land, and. 
in 1857 accompanied the Mormon contingent 
•who then crossed the Atlantic with the pur- 



pose of making their home in the land of Des- 
eret, which has since been developed into the 
great prosperous and wealthy state of Utah. 
where they engaged in agricultural pursuits 
until 1892, when the father died, and the 
mother is still residing on the homestead 
where they had so long rn^de their residence. 
They were the parents of nine children, of 
whom the subject of this sketch was the fifth 
in order of birth. 

Joseph Jensen grew to manhood in Utah, 
leaving the activities of the paternal home at 
the early age of fourteen years, and being em- 
ployed for a number of years on the farms of 
various citizens. In 1894. having so 
thoroughly mastered the farming industry as 
to consider that he could acquire an independ- 
ent home and prosperity by engaging in agri- 
culture for himself, he wended his way to Idaho 
and to Bingham county, where he availed 
himself of his right of homesteading, filing 1 
on 160 acres and also purchasing contiguous 
land until his estate now consists of 240 acres. 
which, by industry, care and the exercise of 
his natural taste, he has transformed from a 
wild and unproductive waste into fertile fields 
and a productive estate. He is decidedly pro- 
gressive and enterprising and his achieve- 
ments of the past are but indicative of greater 
results to he obtained in the future. 

His sagacity, industry and keen percep- 
tion are shown in all matters of business and 
public policy, together with a genial and pleas- 
ant manner in social life, while from his long 
life on the plains he has hecome self-reliant, 
possessing nerve and quickness to grapple 
with any emergency. In politics he is a Re- 
publican of the most unswerving character. 
his capability for efficiently holding puhlic 
trusts and positions being recognized by his 
party in 1900 by his nomination to the impor- 
tant office of county commissioner, to which he 
was triumphantly elected, and as an incum- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



-49 



bent of this distinguished position he gave 
■ such excellent and appreciated service that 
in 1892 he was again nominated and elected 
to the same office. 

Possessing high moral character, unswerv- 
ing integrity and deeply religious principles. 
Mr. Jensen is a highly valued member of the 
Mormon church. His marriage occurred in 
Logan, Utah, on April 25, 1888, the bride be- 
ing Miss Mary Christensen, a native of Cache 
Valley, Utah, and a daughter of Nels and 
Christiana (Larsen) Christensen, natives of 
Denmark, and for an extended notice of the 
family and its ancestral relations we would 
call the readers attention to the sketch of Ezra 
Christensen, which appears on other pages of 
this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Jensen have a win- 
some daughter, Ethel Christiana. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 

In the work of changing the Great West 
from a wild, barbaric and unproductive land, 
many nationalities have had their share, and 
among them all there have been no more in- 
dustrious, sturdy, persistent workers than 
the sons and daughters of the little kingdom 
of Sweden, and well has their work and nobly 
have their achievements filled in the grand 
total of the gigantic progress and prosperity 
acquired in the coming to the mountains and 
plains of the civilization which the united la- 
bors of the grand army of pioneers have 
brought. Among the number of this gallant 
company we must number Andrew Johnson, 
who, although now residing at Rexburg, Idaho, 
in an impaired state of bodily health, 
has for thirty-six years been a part and parcel 
of the working force in the ranks of the de- 
velopment of the intermountain section of the 
Great West. 

He was born on October 18, 1819; at 
Assarby Berga, Sweden, a son of Jonas and 



Christiana (Anderson) Johnson. The father 
died in 1837, the mother being eighty- 
one years of age when Andrew emigrated. It 
was in 1865 that Mr. Johnson first crossed the 
plains, coming to Utah in one of ,the typical 
ox trains of that period, and locating at Brig- 
ham City, where for five years he was engaged 
in the manufacturing of furniture, then re- 
moving to Weston for a four-years residence, 
and later taking up land at Malad, Idaho, 
where he conducted farming operations until 
he was stricken with a partial paralysis, and 
came to Rexburg among the pioneer settlers. 

At Ogden, Utah, on October 16, 1866, 
Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with 
Miss Anna Marie Kallgren, a daughter of 
Los and Helena (Danielsoh) Kallgren; na- 
tives of Sweden, who emigrated to America 
in 1864, coming to Utah where the father 
was drowned while crossing the Weber River, 
his body not being recovered for several 
months, and the mother surviving his loss but 
a short time. To the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Johnson have been born the following 
named children : Helena Christina, born Au- 
gust 12, 1867; Andrew, born August 2, 1870; 
Lorenzo, born October 6, 1873; Jospeh, born 
June 5. 1876 ; Mary Ann, born March 8, 1879 ; 
Selmas Amelia, bom January 26, 188 1. 

In i860 Mr. Johnson joined the missionary 
workers of the Latter Day Saints, and in 186 1 
he was ordained an elder and sent to Sweden 
where he accomplished fine results in the five 
years of his missionary labors, after his return 
becoming a counsellor to the bishop of the St. 
John ward of the Oneida stake, later being a 
high priest, also* serving some years as a home 
missionary, the duties of these several posi- 
tions' being ably and conscientiously dis- 
charged. Since making his home in Rex- 
burg, his health has incapacitated him from the 
performance of either religious .or civil trusts, 
as he has been confined to his house the 



250 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



greater part of the time. He is surrounded 
with all the care that a loving wife and af- 
fectionate children can bestow. He enjoys also 
the esteem and sympathy of his former com- 
pany, and the public in general for his kindly 
nature and genuine worth, while the family 
occupy a standing of cordial friendship in 
community and church circles and has numer- 
ous stanch and loyal friends. 

R. N. JEPPESEN. 

Conspicuously standing among the early 
emigrants from Utah to the Upper Valley of 
the Snake River of Idaho, having been connect- 
ed with every movement of the reclamation and 
development of Fremont county from its wild, 
inhospitable condition of broad-spreading 
plains of sagebrush, cactus and wild roses, and 
now. after years of incesant and well-planned 
labor, maintaining his pleasant and productive 
home on Teton Island, on the highly improved 
and productive estate his diligent endeavors 
have given to him, occupying a residence both 
commodious and attractive, Rasmus N. Jeppe- 
sen well deserves the pen of the annalist.- He 
was born on April n, 1863, at Brig-ham City. 
Utah, a son of Rasmus Nelson and Emma E. 
(Bravandt) Jeppesen, natives of Denmark, who 
came to Utah in company with one of the 
earliest handcart migrations, upon their arrival 
locating in Box Elder county, where the father 
located on government land, began its cultiva- 
tion and was also the proprietor of an adobe 
yard. These possessions were soon sold and 
the family home transferred to Mantua, in Box 
Elder county, where a farm was purchased, 
and, in that then primitive section, the father, 
who was born on July 8, 1820, was a most use- 
ful citizen, becoming the counsellor to Bishop 
Pete C. Jensen, and aiding in locating and the 
laying out of the first roads and irrigation 
ditches, and he also assisted in laving- out the 



townsite of Mantua. He resided in' the new 
home until his death, on June 9, 1896, his faith- 
ful wife, the mother of the immediate subject 
of this review r , whose birth occurred on April 
25, 1837, having passed to her eternal reward 
on July 20, 1874. her remains being deposited 
in the little cemetery at Brigham City. The 
children of this couple were John P., born on 
February 13, 1859; Emma E., born on Febru- 
ary 10, 1861 ; Rasmus N. ; Mary C. born on 
August 16, 1865; Annie M., born on August 
6, 1867; Joseph B., born on August 31. 1869; 
Conrad N., torn on December 29, 1871 : Caro- 
line S.. born on March 4. 1874, died on August 
23, 1879. 

R. N. Jeppesen, of this writing, gave dili- 
gent attention and labors to the material inter- 
ests of his parents during the years of his 
minority, thereafter, in 1884. coming as a pio- 
neer to Rexburg, Idaho, with two yokes of 
oxen. and. at an early date, he secured 160 
acres of government land by homestead and 
this he has so changed as to almost make its 
identity unrecognizable, for the then barren 
plain land, with its covering of unprofitable 
sagebrush, has now become well-watered and 
highly productive fields, giving to the generous 
owner annual yields of bountiful crops as the 
result of his untiring energy, persistent labors 
and patient and persevering- industry. Diversi- 
fied farming operations are here conducted: 
embracing not only the successful cultivation 
of hay, grain, vegetables and small fruits, but 
also the profitable and extensive raising of 
horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. 

For a year after their arrival the family 
lived in a log house of one room, having a dirt 
roof, which building was enlarged by the con- 
struction of another room of the same char- 
acter during the second season, and this was 
the family home until T899. when a commo- 
dious, comfortable and attractive residence of 
modern design and equipment was erected. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



251 



one of the finest houses on the island, and here 
the family is now enjoying life. Purchasing 
thirteen acres of land in Rexburg, after dispos- 
ing of one house and lot, he still has a valuable 
realty which is constantly improving in value. 
Mr. Jeppesen has been actively identified 
with all pioneer movements, was active in work 
on all the irrigation canals, and he now holds 
the office of a director in the Teton Island 
Canal Co. From the first he has aided gener- 
ously in all public matters of community and 
local interest, viewing national and state mat- 
ters from the standpoint of the Democratic 
party, whose tickets and candidates he has al- 
ways supported. In the Mormon church, of 
which he has been a member from early life, 
he has worthily held various offices, having 
been an active and popular teacher in the first 
ward of Rexburg since 1884 and an elder since 
1890, while, previous to his coming, to Fremont 
county, he sustained the dignities connected 
with the priesthood. On October 9, 1890, Mr. 
Jeppesen was united in holy matrimony with 
Miss Eleanor C. Ricks, a daughter of Josiah 
and Lucy (Merrill) Ricks, who are now resid- 
ing at Teton Basin, Idaho. Five children con- 
stitute the family, namely : Lawrence, born on 
July 27, 1891 ; Joseph, born on June 28, 1893 ; 
Vernon, born on March 10, 1896; Lorenzo R. , 
born on January 17, 1898, and Emma D., born 
on September 15, 1901. 

EDWARD BURGOYNE. 

When, on March 20, 1902, the sable- 
winged messenger of Death bore over the 
Great Divide the spirit of the subject of this 
review, southeastern Idaho lost one of its most 
conspicuous business operators, and it is a mat- 
ter of profound regret to the people of the' en- 
tire Bear Lake county that a life so efficiently 
equipped for usefulness to that portion of the 
state should have been thus cut short, for it 



was gemmed with rare acquirements, manly 
virtues and beneficent deeds. This life ac- 
complished much of value, much of success, 
manifesting ever in all departments of en- 
deavor a fidelity that never broke its word, 
never forgot a promise or overlooked a favor. 
Such successful lives, independent of years, 
command the universal homage of mankind. 
Bear Lake county is richer, more radiant with 
sunshine of contentment, because Edward Bur- 
goyne gave to its business enterprises for so 
many years his untiring, wise and sagacious 
energies. 

Born in the south of Wales, on February 
22, 1835, ot ~ sturdy Welsh ancestry that for 
unnumbered generations had usefully lived and 
piously died in the rugged land of their nativ- 
ity, many members thereof reflecting honor 
upon the family by feats of valor on the tented 
field, wise councils in the halls of legislation 
and sagacious activities in the peaceful indus- 
trial vocations of the land, General Burgoyne, 
whose unfortunate connection with the Ameri- 
can Revolution is of historic record, being per- 
haps the most noted of them all, Edward Bur- 
goyne, so long the leading merchant of Mont- 
pelier, was the son of a prosperous worker in 
iron, Thomas Burgoyne, who, with his estim- 
able wife, Sarah (Strong) Burgoyne, was of 
local prominence, both being loyal to the crown 
and cherished members of the established 
church. They were not long spared after the 
birth of their son, who was bereft of both par- 
ents by death before he was ten years old. 

Receiving a practical and solid education 
in the schools of Wales, Mr. Burgoyne learned 
the weaver's trade, in which he acquired much 
proficiency and at which he wrought during his 
residence in Wales. He was content in his la- 
bors, had laid the foundation for a pleasant 
home by a highly suitable marriage union with 
a Miss Mary Eynon, and was steadily occupied 
with this home and his daily round of labor, 



252 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



until, through faithful missonaries, himself and 
wife were brought into the knowledge of the 
faith of the Mormon church and became con- 
verts to its doctrines. Zealous in his new be- 
lief, he started forth in the missionary field and 
did much valuable work in bringing souls to 
the truth. Always prompt to act along the 
lines of ever}- duty. Mr. Burgoyne obeyed the 
call of his superiors and in 1861 made the long 
voyage that intervened between the abrupt 
shores of Wales and the sage-brush-covered 
country surrounding the Great Salt Lake, 
where, in the Cache Valley of Utah, he set 
up and operated the first carding mill and loom 
in that district of the territory, laboring there 
at woolcarding in the summer seasons and in 
winter devoting himself to the manufacture of 
cloth, linsey for women's apparel and kersey 
for the clothing of men. 

in these industrious and profitable voca- 
tions his time was occupied until 1864, when 
President Brigham Young- called for volun- 
teers to settle in and take possession of the 
Bear Lake Valley in the name of the church. 
This was no child's play. Only vigorous, alert 
and God-fearing men could aid in bringing 
that cold, primitive land, occupied by beasts of 
prey and the hunting-ground of bloodthirsty 
savages, into civilized and peaceful communi- 
ties, dominated by the beneficent influence of re- 
ligion. Mr. Burgoyne was one of the fifteen 
volunteers who, for this exalted purpose, es- 
tablished themselves and their families, in 
1864, with the blessing of the church, upon 
the plain where now may be seen the stately 
city of Montpelier. Commencing his life there 
by erecting a fragile willow shanty for his fam- 
ily's first residence, he threw himself into the 
arduous duties appertaining to the very unpro- 
pitious and unpromising frontier life with all 
the ardor of an unconquerable native, patiently 
submitting to the inevitable trials and discom- 
forts, and being heartilv seconded and sustained 



in his untiring labors by his excellent wife, who 
proved herself a highly valuable assistant to 
his plans. Years came and went. Industry 
conquered all obstacles. Their diligent efforts 
received the blessing of the Lord. The own- 
ership of much land in farms, in business and 
resident lots in the townsite of the infant city 
of Montpelier came to Mr. Burgoyne. He be- 
came a large dealer in town property and 
erected man}- buildings, becoming one of the 
largest real-estate owners of the city. 

The needs of the community and of the 
large agricultural settlements that had steadily 
grown to magnitude and importance .in the 
valley induced Mr. Burgoyne, in 1880, to en- 
gage in a mercantile business, which from its 
establishment rapidly grew in scope and im- 
portance until it far surpassed anything of its 
character for miles around. Modest in its be- 
ginnings, his unpretentious stock being amply 
housed in a room sixteen feet square, by close 
attention to the demands of the public, by 
shrewdly forecasting the character of the future 
harvests, and by a winning, courteous, liberal 
and strictly honest manner of procedure, he 
won a host of friends and patrons, until the 
Burgoyne Mercantile Co. became a gigantic 
commercial entity, distributing goods, at both 
wholesale and retail, over a broad extent of 
territory and occupying buildings of metropoli- 
tan size and character. This branch of Mr. 
Burgoyne's activities has been ably sustained 
and managed since his death by his son-in-law. 
Mil ford Williams, a sketch of whom appears 
elsewhere in this volume. 

From his first arrival at Montpelier Mr. 
Burgoyne gave earnest aid in all things tend- 
ing to develop or build up the temporal or spir- 
itual interests of the community, liberally con- 
tributing to causes of charity or of public im- 
provement, becoming a high tower of strength 
to the various departments of the activities of 
his church and being rewarded not only with a 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



2 53 



great financial success, but with the distinct ap- 
proval and endorsement of the officers of the 
whole Mormon church and the esteem and the 
high regard of the people of the whole Bear 
Lake region. When he laid down his earthly 
existence for those activities on the other side 
of the Death River, the passing - of Edward 
Burgoyne was mourned by the entire com- 
munity and hushed voices and bated breaths 
testified to the sincerity of their words of grief. 
Forever and a day, no one can fill his place 
in the hearts of the people. 

Mrs. Burgoyne is highly beloved by all 
who know her, and with their three children, 
Edward L., Mrs. Milford Williams and Mrs. 
Fred Cruikshank, fills well her part in com- 
munity and church circles, still maintaining 
her residence in Montpelier in the midst of the 
hallowed and hallowing memories of the past, 
being held in reverence and loyal affection by 
all of the people. 

CLIFFORD BATES JOHNSON. 

The mission of such compilations as the 
present voltime is most amply maintained when 
it records for unnumbered future generations 
the noble traits of character of distingTiished an- 
cestors long identified with and molding forces 
of the progress of the country, and in the pres- 
ent case we have an unusual combination, for 
the earliest families of New England Colonial 
life and the best blood of the South are united 
in the lineage of the gentleman whose name 
heads this review, while he himself is a typical 
son of the West and a truly self-made man, his 
present prosperity being entirely the results of 
his own earnest endeavors. 

On the paternal side, Mr. Johnson descends 
from ancestors who, as a portion of the Quaker 
colony of William Penn, were in 1675 already 
established in New Jersey, where, in the good 
town of Salem, was born Samuel Johnson, the 



great-grandfather of C. B. Johnson. He was 
prominent as a speaker in the Friends Society 
in Salem, and, removing" to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 
1829, was one of the leaders in his religious so- 
ciety, residing on his farm nine miles from the 
city until his death. His son, Rev. Thomas 
H. Johnson, was born in Salem, N. J., in 1809 
and in 1827 walked across the Alleghanies to 
the Ohio River, thence traveled on a flatboat 
to Cincinnati, where he became prominent as 
the pioneer shoe manufacturer of the city and 
as the most famous Universalist clergyman of 
the Middle West, acquiring wealth and at one 
time owning a large tract of land and a mag- 
nificent residence in the present heart of 
Cincinnati. He died on March 12, 1900, 
aged ninety-one years. His wife, Eliza- 
beth Reily, was born in Campbell county, 
Ky., a daughter of Robert and Esther 
(Stevens) Reily and a granddaughter of 
John Reily, a descendant of Colonial Vir- 
ginians who enlisted in the Revolutionary 
army from Westmoreland county, Pa., in Au- 
gust, 1776, in Capt. Samuel Miller's company 
of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, after the 
battle of Trenton being transferred to Daniel 
Morgan's Rifles, later returning to the Eighth 
Pennsylvania Regiment, serving under Cap- 
tain Clark until discharged at Pittsburg on 
August 11, 1779, and aiding in the capture of 
General Burgoyne. He died in Rush county, 
Ind., on December 22, 1845. 

Capt. James R. Johnson, son of Rev. T. H. 
Johnson, was born and educated in Cincinnati, 
where he was in trade at the breaking out of 
the Civil war, when he raised a company of 
soldiers for the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, of which 
he was commissioned captain and with whom 
he served for three years in some of the most 
momentous campaigns and hotly-contested 
battles of the Army of the Cumberland, at 
Bridgeport, Tenn., receiving a severe accident 
which resulted in a paralysis of the right leg 



254 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



and arm, from which he is yet afflicted. His 
home is now in Huntsville, Ala. His military 
life was marked by patriotic gallantry and his 
civil life by business ability, unassuming mod- 
esty and refined courtesy, winning many and 
strong friends. He married Laura Bates, a 
lineal descendant of Clement Bates, one of the 
residents of the town of Weymouth, Mass., in 
1638, the family being prominent in Massa- 
chusetts to the present writing. Her grand- 
father, Clark Bates, emigrated to Cincinnati in 
1796, purchased 640 acres of land, now largely 
included in the suburbs of that city, married 
Rachel Marshall, of Kentucky, (a member of 
that noted Virginia and Kentucky family which 
produced the famous Chief- Justice John Mar- 
shall and the brilliant orator, Col. "Tom" Mar- 
shall), and participated with great credit in the 
Indian troubles of the period of his Ohio life. 

Clifford B. Johnson was born in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, on February 24, 1869, a son of Capt. 
James R. and Laura (Bates) Johnson, and re- 
ceived his education in the schools of Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, and of Denver, Colo., whither he 
came in 1880, supplementing this by attendance 
at the dickering Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Thereafter he engaged in various occupations, 
first becoming identified with the raising and 
selling of horses in Denver, and later being con- 
nected with railroading and agricultural opera- 
tions until 1889, when he came to Pocatello, 
Idaho, where he was employed on the Oregon 
Short Line Railroad for seven years, then per- 
ceiving an opportunity for a prosperous busi- 
ness, he established himself as a liveryman in 
Pocatello, and has since been engaged in super- 
vising his extensive operations. He has just 
completed one of the finest structures of the 
kind in the state in the shape of a new and 
large brick barn, which is admirably adapted 
for his trade, being located on Arthur avenue, 
north about two blocks from Center street. His 
success has been eminently satisfactory, and is 



certain to be cumulative, for his affairs are con- 
ducted with careful discrimination and pro- 
gressive methods. 

Mr. Johnson enjoys the confidence and re- 
gard of the people, being recognized as a man 
of business acumen and watchful devotion to 
the interests of the community, and he has held 
several city and county offices with credit to 
himself and to the advantage of the public. 

At Logan, Utah, on March 22, 1893, oc ~ 
curred the marriage of Mr. Johnson and Miss 
Nellie Apperly, a native of Logan, Utah, and 
a daughter of William H. and Amelia (Man- 
gum) Apperly, natives of England and South 
Carolina, they being numbered among the early 
pioneers of Utah. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have 
two children, Laura M. and Lee. The whole 
family is greatly esteemed by a large circle of 
friends and held in the highest respect by all 
classes of people. 

OSCAR JOHXSOX. 

It is a far cry from the far-off land of Swe- 
den, with its small farms and minute industries, 
to the wide plains and ranches of Idaho, yet 
that long distance must be covered when we 
treat of the ancestry and the birthplace of the 
subject of this review, Oscar Johnson, who is 
now prosperously engaged in ranching opera- 
tions in Bingham county, having his home and 
business headquarters on his ranch, which is 
pleasantly located but two miles east of Idaho 
Falls, where he is conducting, not only prosper- 
ous farming and stockraising operations, but. 
also, from the excellent quality of clay which 
he has discovered on his ranch, manufacturing 
an excellent article of brick, and also filling 
contracts for plastering in Idaho Falls and 
vicinity for the last six years. Mr. Johnson's 
birth occurred at Guttenburg, Sweden, on 
April 12. 1863, and he is a son of Carl and 
lohanna Johnson, his father, who died in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



255' 



1892, at the age of eighty-six years, being for 
many years an owner and captain of vessels 
engaged in the Swedish merchant marine serv- 
ice. His mother, also a native of Sweden, 
died in 1879, at the age of fifty-one years, being 
the mother of nine children, of whom two are 
now living. 

Oscar Johnson at the early age of thirteen 
years crossed the great ocean for America, 
coming to Colorado, where he remained en- 
gaged in various occupations, working in rail- 
road shops and following agricultural pursuits 
and cattleraising, until 1884, and he also- owned 
a farm in Jefferson county during- the latter 
part of his residence there. From Colorado he 
removed to California and later to Oregon, in 
both places conducting agriculture, and, in 
1886, making his permanent home in Bingham 
county, occupying himself in running ranches 
for a few years, then acquiring a homestead 
right, his present property of 160 acres. 
From that time to the present he has been dil- 
igently emplo}red in various successful pur- 
suits, being considered one of the representa- 
tive citizens 'of that section of the county, and, 
by his conduct and deportment, reflecting 
honor upon the land which gave him birth, and 
proving himself to be a loyal and law-abiding 
citizen of his adopted country. 

On June 4, 1886, Mr. Johnson attained the 
importance of married life, then wedding Miss 
Christy Lindgren, also a native of Sweden, 
and a daughter of Peter and Martha (Larson) 
Lindgren, her birth occurring at Ugglarp, 
where her father was a lifelong farmer and 
died in 1884, at the age of eighty-three years, 
his wife, Martha, surviving him, her death oc- 
curring in 1892, at the age of seventy years. 
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have an interesting 
family, and we record their names, as follows : 
Oscar, Emma, Hulda, Ella and Alice. 

By his own energy, industry and force of 
character Mr. Johnson has raised himself from 



the condition of a poor boy to comfortable cir- 
cumstances and an honorable position in the 
community of his chosen home, and his life af- 
fords an object lesson of eminent value to 
struggling lads who are striving in the battle 
of life for some field of opportunity where they 
may win and acquire homes of comfort and 
prosperity, and it is very evident that Mr. 
Johnson sees no reason to regret either his de- 
parture from his native land, or the conditions 
which have surrounded him in this new land of 
promise and plenty in the West. 

JOSEPH JOHNSON. 

Among the civilizing forces that have aided 
most materially in redeeming from barbarism 
and reducing to productiveness and value the 
long reaches of mountain and plain in the 
great Rocky Mountain section of the United 
States, few, if any, have been more active, more 
persistent or more effective than the Church 
of Latter Day Saints. It keeps its missionaries 
zealously at work in all quarters of the globe, 
and the results of their labors are impressively 
felt in the rapidly increasing population of 
this section and in the ever-expanding power 
and volume of its commercial and industrial 
life. The labors of the missionaries of this 
church have been potential in Denmark, 
bringing thousands of ardent toilers into the 
field of its spiritual activities, and as well into 
the domain of its material progress and su- 
premacy. 

Among the number of their converts who 
have added new force to the conquering hosts 
that are building up the mighty states of the 
Rocky Mountain region from this trans- 
Atlantic country of historic renown, James 
and Mary (Nelson) Johnson, late of the 
Cache Valley of Utah, must be mentioned with 
credit and high respect. They were converted 
to the Mormon faith in this native land, and, 



256 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



in 1856, came to America, desiring to live in 
the midst of the people of their communion 
and near the sacred altars of their church. 
After their arrival in this country they re- 
mained a year in Illinois, then, in 1857, crossed 
the plains to Salt Lake City, and. after a short 
residence at that place, became pioneers and 
first settlers of the locality where Brigham 
City now stands. They located on their al- 
lotment of land and began to make it habita- 
ble and productive by diligent and skillful hus- 
bandry. The father worked also at his trade 
as a shoemaker, in which capacity his services 
were in great demand, as skilled mechanics 
are never too plentiful on the frontier. 

When the Indian troubles of 1861 and 
1862 broke out, the family of Mr. Johnson 
with others went to the southern part of Utah 
until peace and safety were restored, then re- 
turned to Brigham City, where they con- 
tinued to make their home until the spring of 
[872, when they moved to Hyde Park in 
Cache Valley. Here the parents passed the 
rest of their lives, the mother dying in 1885 
and the father in 1890. Their son Joseph was 
born at Brigham City, Utah, on July 19, 1865, 
and removed with the family to Hyde Park in 
[872. The facilities for education in this re- 
gion were few and crude in those days, but, 
such as they were, he enjoyed them for a short 
time and made good use of them. 

When fourteen years of age Joseph John- 
son engaged in construction work on the Utah 
& Northern Railroad, continuing in the em- 
ploy of the company until the spring of 1880. 
At that time he entered the service of the 
Northern Pacific, which was then building 
through Montana, and remained so occupied 
for two years. In 1882 he returned to Hvde 
Park, and in the spring of 1883 arrived at 
Preston, in this state, where, soon after his 
arrival, he entered into a partnership associa- 
tion with his brother, James William Hawkes 



and Joseph B. Roper, under the firm name of 
James Johnson & Co., for the purpose of 
carrying on a general farming industry and 
conducting, other business extensively. The 
copartnership still exists and the company is 
engaged in sawmilling and farming opera- 
tions. 

From the time of his arrival here Mr. 
Johnson has been diligent and energetic, not 
only in business, but also in public affairs and 
church interests. In politics he is a Democrat 
and is an earnest advocate of the principles of 
his party. In the church organization he has 
been a member of the stake high council four 
years after many years of zealous and effective 
service in other capacities. 

The marriage of Mr. Johnson occurred on 
October 29, 1884, at Logan. Utah, when Miss 
Olive Lamb, a native of Utah and daughter of 
Suel and Elizabeth (Zimmerman) Lamb, the 
former a native of Ohio and the latter of Penn- 
sylvania, became his wife. Both parents came 
to Utah with their parents, the father being 
among the first that crossed the plains with a 
private company from Nauvoo in 1847. and 
- losing his father by death on the way. His 
mother and her children were among the first 
settlers of Lehi. Utah, and he helped to build 
the fort at that place. In 1S66 he unwed to 
1 [yde Park where he has since made his home. 
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have seven children. 
George, Willard, Leonard, Wallace. Leslie. 
Jesse and Ina. 

OTTO E. JOHNSON. 

To the conquering and civilizing forces 
which have made the Northwest of the United 
States in a large measure a garden instea 
a wilderness, and the home of happy, prosper- 
ous and progressive people, instead of the 
hunting grounds of the savage, Denmark has 
contributed a goodly share of help and in- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



257 



spiration, and among her contributions to the 
work no man is more entitled to public respect 
and honorable mention than Otto E. Johnson, 
of Preston, Idaho, whose services to the sec- 
tion in which he lives in useful citizenship and 
in productive church work stand prominently 
to his credit in the knowledge of the people 
who have witnessed them. He was born on 
June 4, 1855, in Denmark, and was reared to 
the age of twelve years in that country. 

In 1868, boy though he was, he braved the 
heaving ocean for the larger hopes and op- 
portunities held out to diligence and thrift in 
this country, and turning away from the 
friends and associations of his childhood and 
youth, he came to the United States, reached 
the Mississippi and soon thereafter crossed 
the plains to Utah in a train under the com- 
mand and guidance of Captain Loveland, of 
Brigbam. City. He stopped for a time at Salt 
Lake City and worked at various occupations, 
then took up his residence successively in 
Tooele and Box Elder counties, where he la- 
bored on farms most of the time. In 1873. 
when he was eighteen, he began to learn cab- 
inetmaking, later working at it in Brigham 
City for three years. 

On February 15, 1875, he was married at 
Salt Lake to Miss Annie Jensen, a native of 
Denmark, and daughter of Jens Peterson and 
Peteronella Peterson, his wife. In 1878 with 
his family he moved to Snowville in Box Elder 
county, where they were among the first set- 
tlers, and where they engaged in farming on 
land which he homesteaded. He remained 
there until 1883, and then removed to Cache 
county, L T tah, where he was employed as a 
millwright, a trade of which he was also 
master. He made his home in this county un- 
til December 1, then came to Idaho, and set- 
tled at Preston, in Oneida county, taking up 
land three miles north of the village, where he 
started a farming enterprise, which his sons 



were qualified by age and experience to con- 
duct, leaving him free to work at his trade as 
a millwright, his services in this line being in 
great demand all over Oneida and adjoining 
counties in this and the bordering states. He 
followed this occupation busily for twelve 
years and has since been engaged as a com- 
mercial traveler for a music establishment at 
Logan, being a musician of repute and under- 
standing the construction of all musical in- 
struments as well as having the name of being 
a good organist. 

His musical talents have frequently been 
invoked in the service of the church, being 
the chorister at Preston for ten years at the 
time when it was all one ward under Bishop 
William C. Parkinson. He held numerous 
other positions in its work as a musician and 
was also the director and leader of numerous 
orchestras and glee clubs at the various places 
of his residence. He has been very successful 
in the business as a salesman, his mechanical 
and musical skill being of great service to 
him. In September, 1889, he bought the 
ranch one mile and a half north of Preston, 
on which he now lives, and this has since then 
been his home. In 1897 he enlarged and mod- 
ernized his residence, improving it into a fine, 
attractive and completely equipped dwelling. 
His sons have been diligent and skillful in their 
farming operations and have made the place 
one of the most desirable and valuable in this 
part of the county. 

Mr. Johnson is an earnest and active ad- 
vocate of all progressive methods and has 
given and gives inspiration and substantial 
help to every commendable enterprise for the 
improvement of the community, being a Re- 
publican in politics, zealous and energetic in 
the service of his party. He has also been 
very serviceable in church work, filling home 
missions and doing much in other lines of its 
religious activity. His sons, of whom he has 



25« 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



nine, are following in his footsteps, being ener- 
getic business men and earnest church work- 
ers. Albert went on a two-years mission to 
Denmark, but was obliged to relinquish it and 
return home on account of his health. The 
fourth son, Nephi, is on a mission in the North- 
western states. The oldest son, Otto, and the 
second, Herman, are ranching on Snake River 
near Marysville, Fremont county, Idaho. 
Ernest. Lawrence, Alma, Harvey and Arnold, 
and the three daughters, Lunetta C, Emma 
and Lulu, are diligent and useful members of 
the paternal home. 

The parents of Mr. Johnson. Neilo and 
Anna C. (Granlund) Johnson, were natives of 
Denmark and farmers. They became members 
of the church of Latter Day Saints, and in 
1870 came to the United States and when 
they reached Utah settled as farmers in Tooele 
county, where their son was living at the time. 
Two years later they moved to Salt Lake City 
where they lived two years. In 1874 they took 
up their residence at Brigham City, and in 
1876 moved to Clarkston, in Cache county, 
where they remained until the death of the 
father in 1880. After that sad event the 
mother made her home with her children in 
different parts of the state, and was living with 
a daughter in Salt Lake City at the time of 
her death in 1892. 

SMITH JOHNSON. 

A son of one of the early Mormon emi- 
grants who endured the trials and privations 
incident to the crossing of the Great American 
Desert with ox teams in the early days of the 
settlement of Utah, when the way was infested 
with wild beasts and wilder savages, and men 
took their lives in their hands when thev at- 
tempted the dangerous journey, and being him- 
self a native of the state which that brave and 
heroic civilization founded in the desert plains 



surrounding the great Salt Lake, Smith John- 
son now maintains his home and center of ac- 
tivities in close proximity to Taylor postofhce, 
in Bingham county, Idaho, where he has re- 
sided since making his home in this state in 
1885. 

Mr. Johnson was born on December 8. 
1854. at Salt Lake City, Utah, being a son of 
Thomas S. and Man' (Harrison) Johnson, the 
father being born in New York in 1818 and 
crossing the plains and locating in Salt Lake 
City as an early pioneer, becoming one of the 
Seventies of the church, and laboring indus- 
triously at farming until the close of his life at 
the hale old age of seventy-eight years, leaving 
a family of nine children. Smith Johnson was 
reared and educated in Salt Lake City, and at 
an early age assumed the responsibilities of life 
for himself, and with keen business sagacity he 
discerned a profitable opening, and at once en- 
gaged in freighting operations which he con- 
ducted to various portions of the Western 
states, until coming to Bingham county in 
1885, when he located on the land which he 
has since developed into one of the pleasant 
homes of this section. His estate consists of 
160 acres of land on which he has since re- 
sided, improving his property and making it 
most desirable in attractiveness and comfort, 
as Well as in productiveness, its improvements 
ranging fully up to the high standard of the 
homes of this locality. On his ranch he pro- 
duces excellent crops, an abundant yield of 
hay and always has a good-sized herd of stock. 
He has been prominently interested and is now 
connected with the system of irrigation canals 
that furnish water to this section, and his lands 
and those of his friends have quickly responded 
to the presence of that valuable element anil by 
his labors it has been brought within their 
reach. 

On July 6, 1880, occurred the marriage of 
Miss Eliza Higley. a native of Utah, with Mr. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



259 



Johnson, she being a daughter of George and 
Nancy (Wadsworth) Higley, the family tradi- 
tion tracing her father's ancestry to the famous 
Mayflower passengers, and in their pleasant 
home Mr. and Mrs. Johnson maintain an un- 
restricted and genial hospitality. In their at- 
tractive family circle are nine children : 
Thomas S., Warren, George E., Roy, Maud, 
Lola, Delia, Lillie and Willie. As one of the 
industrious citizens of his section of the state, 
Mr. Johnson has contributed his full share to 
its development and material prosperity and is 
living an eminently pure and active life. 

CHRIS J. JOHNSON. 

Upon the list of citizens whose personal 
sketches, giving varying nationalities, early en- 
vironments, individual advantages and ac- 
complishments of those represented as the 
founders and builders of the commonwealth of 
Idaho, would appear in this volume, is found 
the name of Chris J. Johnson, a native of Den- 
mark, where he was born on October 7, 1855, 
a son of Chris J. and Marie (Christensen) 
Johnson, also natives of Denmark and repre- 
sentatives of ancient families of that sturdy 
little kingdom. 

It was in April, 1872, that Mr. Johnson 
carried into execution his oft contemplated 
plan of emigration, he then crossing' the wide 
Atlantic and proceeding at once to Nevada, 
where he engaged in a mining enterprise for 
a time, thence going to California, where he was 
occupied with profitable farming. In 1884 
he went to Kittitas county, Wash., there 
passing ten years industriously engaged in va- 
rious kinds of labor, thence coming, in 1894, 
to Bingham county, Idaho, where he has since 
been actively engaged in the development of 
his homestead and his property, of which he 
had 120 acres under a high state of improve- 
ment, until he sold his landed estate on No- 



vember 1, 1902, for the purpose of engaging 
in merchandising at Shelley. For about five 
years he was also engaged in mining at Bay 
Horse, Custer county. A prominent member 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for 
years, he was a charter member of the lodge 
created at Shelley, and is now holding the 
office of its financial secretary. His member- 
ship in the order dates from his initiation into 
its mysteries at Redwood, Calif., in 1877, from 
where he was transferred to Ellenburg, Wash., 
thence to Shelley, Idaho. As a prominent 
member of the Democratic party, Mr. Johnson 
exercises influence in its cause and loyally sup- 
ports it's candidates at -the polls, always taking 
an active interest in public affairs of a local 
character and being considered a man of indus- 
try and a profitable citizen s of his adopted coun- 
try. 

BENJAMIN JONES. 

The men who stand in the foremost ranks 
of the world's activities today are those who 
hold the distinctively honorable title of self- 
made men, men, who by their ability, their per- 
sistent endeavors, their intuitive knowledge of 
the principles and laws underlying financial 
operations forge rapidh' to the front in what- 
ever line or lines of commercial or industrial 
endeavor with which they may connect them- 
selves and from small beginnings attain an im- 
portant station in life and acquire financial as. 
well as social success. It is of such a man as 
this that we must write when we review the life 
and activities of Mr. Benjamin Jones, the en- 
terprising founder of the brisk little town of 
Victor, Idaho, for his undoubted success in 
business life has been entirely the result of his 
own efforts. He was born on February 2, 
1862, in the city of St. Louis, Mo., being a son 
of Benjamin and Hannah (Ringrose) Jones. 

His ancestors for many generations trace 
back in the rugged little country of Wales, 



260 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



where his father was born. Coming to St. 
Louis, however, in his youth, the father was 
for many years identified with river navigation, 
rising by strength of his native talent to the 
captainship of a steamer. He was not spared, 
however, to show his full powers of execu- 
tion, as his death occurred in 1871 at a compar- 
ativelv early age, leaving his son, Benjamin, 
fatherless at the age of seven years. The 
mother was born in England, but her marriage 
with Mr. Jones occurred in St. Louis. Shortly 
after the father's death the widowed mother 
crossed the plains to Utah with her children, 
and made the family home at Morgan City, 
where she contracted another matrimonial al- 
liance, her second husband being Mr. Charles 
Turner, a lime burner and brick manufacturer 
of that city, where she now resides, being the 
mother of thirteen children. 

The subject of this review at an early age 
began to assist his stepfather in his business, 
showing such capability that he was employed 
by him until he attained his majority, at which 
time he went to Arizona, there remaining for 
two years, thence returning to Morgan City, 
where he was occupied for two more years of 
active industry, thereafter, in 1888, coming to 
Idaho and settling in Teton Basin, where he 
filed on a homestead claim of 160 acres, about 
two miles west of the town of Victor, and en- 
tered into the raising of cattle, which branch 
of agricultural operations he is still connected 
with in a highly prosperous manner. 

Perceiving the opportunity for and the 
necessity of a center of business in this then 
sparsely settled and almost wilderness country. 
in 1896 Mr. Jones secured the land of his 
present location and laid out the town of Vic- 
tor, establishing there a hotel, a livery and feed 
stable and the first mercantile house of this 
section of the county, also engaging in exten- 
sive lumbering operations. His enterprise and 
business abilities have been most amply re- 



warded, and he has had not only a gratifying 
financial success, but, better far, by his integ- 
rity, honorable business methods and fair deal- 
ing he has won and retained the good will of the 
people and in all the diversified lines of his 
commercial activity he has a large and increas- 
ing patronage. In every public improvement 
Mr. Jones takes active interest, while in the 
Mormon church he enjoys most pleasant rela- 
tions as the high priest of Victor ward. 

On October 27, 1883. the marriage of Mr. 
Jones with Miss Louisa Tonks was solemnized 
at Salt Lake City, where she was born on Feb- 
ruary 28, 1863, being a daughter of William 
and Martha Tonks, early pioneers of Utah and 
valued citizens of Salt Lake City and their 
later residence, Morgan City, Utah, where they 
still maintain their home. Seven children 
have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. 
Jones, namely: Louisa, Benjamin, Myrtle. 
May. Marie, Reta and Erma, and among the 
families of the whole valley none stands in 
higher regard than does this one, while under 
the roof rests ever an abiding hospitality, 
which is extended, not only to their numerous 
friends and acquaintances, but also to "the 
stranger within the gates." 

EPHRAIM S. EMPEY. 

The advantages afforded in Idaho to those 
who will put forth earnest and honest en- 
deavor have been frequently exemplified in 
connection with many of her resources, and 
in none more satisfactorily than in that of 
stockraising. In this line of endeavor Mr. 
Empey has gained a notable success. From 
being early in the employ of others and ren- 
dering the best of service, he has attained an 
independent and enviable position, and now 
stands acknowledged as one of the prosper- 
ous ranchmen and leading citizens of his sec- 
tion of the state, being genial, popular, pro- 




$,&, ^y^V-^y 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



263 



gressive and wide-awake in his methods, con- 
ducting his business with excellent discretion 
and unmistakable success. 

Mr. Empey is a native of England, where 
he was born on May 27, 1852, a son of Sha- 
drach and Anna (Atthis) Empey, his father's 
birth occurring in 1822, in England, where he 
also attained manhood, and, in 1857, left his 
native land, emigrating directly to Utah, cross- 
ing the plains with ox teams and locating at 
Lehi, thereafter engaging in farming until 
his death, on October 26, 1896, at seventy- 
three years of age, becoming prominent in 
the Mormon faith as one of the Seventies. He 
was a son of William and Elizabeth (Kemp- 
son) Empey, representative families holding 
residence in England from time immemorial. 
The mother of Mr. Empey was born in Eng- 
land on November 25, 1826, being a daughter 
of William and Elizabeth (Prior) Atthis, her 
marriage occurring in England on October 
12, 1845. They were the parents of fourteen 
children, four of whom, Ephraim S., Joseph, 
Alfred and John, are at present residing in 
Bing-ham county, Idaho, where the mother 
also is passing the evening of. her life. 

Ephraim S. Empey accompanied the 
family emigration to Utah when he was but 
seven months of ag _ e and there he attained 
manhood, early becoming familiarized with 
farming and stockraising as conducted in the 
West. In 1888, coming to Bingham county, 
he wisely located the place where he now re- 
sides, and where his persistent industry and 
discriminating efforts have developed a beau- 
tiful home, and where he has conducted the 
stockraising business with excellent discrimi- 
nation and unmistakable success. His 160 
acres of land are the headquarters of his 
ranching operations, and from this head- 
quarters he is running several thousand head 
of sheep, being also interested as a member of 
the Ammon Mercantile Co., and prominently 



identified as one of the builders of the Prog- 
ress irrigating canal. Deeply interested in 
everything that concerns the improvement 
and development of the community, he is a 
prominent member of the Mormon church, 
serving acceptably for two years as a mission- 
ary of that belief, and being now one of the 
Seventies. 

Mr. Empey was united in matrimony with 
Miss Sarah A. Rhodes in Salt Lake City, 
Utah, on April 19, 1875, she being a native 
of Lehi, Utah, and a daughter of Alonzo and 
Sarah (Bushman) Rhodes. Her father was 
born in Ohio, a son of Erie Rhodes, and came 
to Utah at an early date, where the father 
died in Lehi in 1895. The maternal grand- 
father of Mrs. Empey was Martin Bushman, 
a prominent citizen of Pennsylvania. Mr. and 
Mrs. Empey have eleven children, their 
names, dates of birth, etc., being as follows: 
Sarah A., born April 14, 1876, married with 
Perry Molen on February 21, 1895; Elias, 
born February 25, 1878, married October 22, 
1899, Jane Powell, died April 22, 1903; Earn- 
est, born March 28, 1880; Elsie, born May 6, 
1882, married, September 21, 1901, Richard 
Tracy; Burton, August 5, 1884; Martin, March 
6, 1886; Alva M., April 29, 1889; Pearl, Octo- 
ber 9, 1892; Ray, December 20, 1894; Homer, 
May 28, 1896; Edna, March 25, 1901. 
Mr. Empey is an intelligent and well-educated 
man, well-versed in public matters and gen- 
eral affairs, broad-minded and progressive in 
his views and in sympathy with the Repub- 
lican political party. 

HON. THOMAS A. JOHNSTON. 

An honest, capable and fearless judiciary is 
the last bulwark of liberty among a free peo- 
ple; and without this their doom is sealed. 
There may be great commercial enterprise, 
vast industrial activitv, voluminous agricul- 



264 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tural production, with social splendor, artistic 
adornment and intellectual power, but in a 
free, able and untrammeled judicial system 
liberty rests for protection and both individual 
right and the general weal find their best and 
their ultimate security. The states of the 
great Northwest realized this early in their 
history. When they were new and uncivilized 
the lawless element was disposed to run riot 
and defy authority, but heroic measures were 
taken to clear the atmosphere, and then the 
forms of law and the channels of its adminis- 
tration were firmly fixed within definite metes 
and bounds. Once put in motion, her forces 
have worked harmoniously, and the succes- 
sion to her scepter has been kept in proper 
hands. Among those who have capably held 
official place, administering justice freely, 
without price, speedily without delay and fully 
without denial, must be mentioned Hon. 
Thomas A. Johnston, probate judge of Ban- 
nock county in this state. He was born in 
Canada in 1848, the son of James and Fannie 
(McElroy) Johnston, natives of Ireland who 
came to the United States soon after their 
marriage, and after living for a time in New 
York, settled in the province of Ontario, and 
there engaged in farming until his death in 
1872, at the age of seventy-eight. His widow- 
died in 1882 at the age of sixty-seven. Of 
their eleven children the Judge was the sixth 
in order of birth. His life has been one touch- 
ing both extremes of fortune, and almost 
every form of trial in toil and struggle. His 
school days were passed in his native country, 
but his education was obtained mainly from 
subsequent reading and from contact with the 
world. At the age of thirteen he was ap- 
prenticed to a shoemaker to learn, the trade, 
and worked at it for fully twenty years, con- 
ducting for two years of the time a shoe store 
at Bradford. Pa. He then passed six years at 
Central City, Neb., and six at Rawlins, 



Wyo. From that place he came to Pocatello, 
Idaho, working for the railroad company un- 
til 1884, when he opened a shoe store in Raw- 
lins which he carried on until 1889, thence re- 
turning to Pocatello, where for two years 
thereafter he conducted a cigar and tobacco 
business, and for six or seven did carpenter 
work. He was then elected police judge of 
Pocatello, and at the end of his term of six 
years, in 1901, was elected probate judge of 
Bannock county on the Republican ticket. 
Since his tenure of this office began he has wo 1 
praise from all classes of the people for his 
manifest fairness, independence and ability in 
the discharge of his official duties, and has 
kept the standard of his office high and its 
atmosphere clean and pure. 

In fraternal relations Judge Johnston is 
connected with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. He was married in 1873 to Miss 
Ella B. Doolittle, a daughter of Leland and 
Virna (Rosson) Doolittle. natives of New 
York. Her father was a prominent physician 
and surgeon, and during the Civil war served 
in that capacity in a New York regiment. 
Mrs. Johnston was born in Indiana and her 
marriage occurred in Nebraska. 

JOHN F. JONES. 

For many generations have the industrious 
ancestors of Mr. Jones wrought faithfully in 
the iron works and on the small but fertile 
farms in the south part of the little kingdom 
of Wales, manifesting the thrift, integrity and 
independence so characteristic of the honest 
yeomanry of that rugged land. His father. 
David D. Jones, who was a son of John Jones. 
came with his wife Ann and family of six 
children to America and to Utah in the first 
emigration of July, 1869. and locating at 
South Weber, east of Ogden, in July of that 
year engaging in farming and railroad 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



265 



construction work in Weber county, in 1875 
following" mining" in Bingham Canyon, Utah, 
thereafter passing" the time in mining until 
1885 on the Little and Big Cottonwood Rivers 
and he is now residing at Basalt in Bingham 
county, Idaho, having survived his wife, whose 
death occurred in Weber comity, Utah, in 
1898, at the age of sixty-five years, and seven 
of their children are now living. 

John F. Jones, the eldest member of his 
father's family, was born on June 23, 1854, in 
the southern part of Wales, being fifteen years 
old when he accompanied the family emi- 
gration from his native Traforest, Wales. He 
became connected with mining- operations in 
Utah and participated in the activities Of 
many camps from 1870 until 1883, then work- 
ing one winter in the coal mines of Rock 
Springs, Wyo., thereafter coming to Bing- 
ham county, Idaho, having located his home- 
stead the year previous in 1884. 

To more fully trace the movements of Mr. 
Jones we will state that from 1870 he was en- 
gaged in mining in Bingham Canyon, Utah, 
until 1875, when he changed his base of oper- 
ations to Alta, where he remained more than 
six months, thence going to' Jacobs City and 
East Canyon. In the mining camps of the 
state of Utah he remained until 1884, then comr- 
ing to Idaho he located his present homestead 
on Fall Creek,- four miles southeast of Lyons 
postoffice. Returning again to Utah he then 
went to Rock Springs, Wyo., where, during 
the winter of 1884, he worked in the coal 
mines. In the spring of 1885 he moved his 
family to Fall Creek, which has since been his 
residence and seat of operations, moving,, how- 
ever, to Rigby during the winters to secure the 
school advantages. 

Since his location as an agriculturalist in 
Idaho Mr. Jones has been an active and suc- 
cessful operator in stockraising, and to the 
duties connected therewith he is still devoted. 



prospered in this industry and running a fine 
raising stock of a superior quality, being 
herd of horses and cattle. At the time of his 
settlement here he was the farthest settler lo- 
cated on the South Fork of the Snake River, 
the whole district being" infested with lawless 
outlaws, horse and cattle thieves. Now 
where they roamed all the available land is set- 
tled and herds of cattle peacefully graze on 
the mountains. In the Mormon church he 
worthily holds the office of elder and is known 
as one of the valuable and progressive citizens 
of the county, while in political creed he is in 
touch with the Democratic party and a dili- 
gent worker in its ranks. 

On December 20, 1875, Mr. Jones was 
united in marriage with Mrs. Elizabeth 
(Jones) Alford, the widow of David Alford 
and daughter of William and Ann (Haddock) 
Jones, her father being a well-known and 
prominent citizen of Utah, her birth occurring 
in Nebraska while her parents were en route 
on the trail on August 8, 1855. The first five 
children of Mr. Jones were born at Riverdale, 
Utah, and the names of all follow : Rosalia, 
born January 13, 1878, died on February 18, 
1878; Marietta, born June 18, 1879, married 
Arthur SaXton, and resides at Rigby; Zelia, 
born on March 16, 1881 ; Reuben, born Janu- 
ary 8, 1883; Dora, born on September 22, 
1884; Benjamin, born May 2, 1886, at Rex- 
burg, Idaho, died on June 26, 1886; Joseph, 
bora on October 8, 1887, at Fall Creek, 
Idaho; Gwendaline, born on February 20. 
1889, also at Fall Creek; Martha, born on 
June 24, 1 89 1, at Fall Creek, died on Febru- 
ary 15, 1894; Rachel, born on March 24, 
1893, at Fall Creek, died on April 3, 1893; 
Ruth, born on May 24, 1894. Mrs. Jones has a 
daughter by her first husband, Elizabeth 
Ann Jones, born September 1, 1871, who mar- 
ried Jabus Peek, and now resides at Basalt, 
Idaho. 



266 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



William Jones, the father of Mrs. John F. 
Jones was a member of the Morrisite church 
from its organization for fourteen months, 
then withdrawing with his goods, he and his 
wife were chased and captured and, with 
their companions, two Danish men, they 
were made prisoners and were confined in 
chains. By digging down from their pris- 
on and hiding the dirt under the bed one of 
the Danes managed to get away and reported 
at Farmington that Mr. Jones was to be ex- 
ecuted. A company was immediately organ- 
ized which ragged war against the Morrisites 
until Mr. Jones was released. Some time 
afterward at a round-up Mr. Jones met his old 
jailor who was severely punished by him in 
payment for the great abuse given while Mr. 
Jones and wife were prisoners. For a full and 
interesting history of Mr. William Jones, the 
reader is referred to The Juvenile Instructor. 

At his own expense he brought twentv-one 
souls from Wales to Utah and all have pro- 
gressed very satisfactorily. 

JOSEPH W. JONES. 

Those who were born in Utah at an early 
period of its settlement are well entitled to the 
name of pioneers, since from childhood they 
were intimately associated with the toils, the 
privations, the deprivations and the hardships 
inseparably connected with the rude life and 
conditions experienced by those who were the 
prime movers in the task of subjugating the 
wilderness, and among this number a truly 
representative one appears in Joseph W. 
Jones, now a prosperous citizen of Lewisville, 
Idaho, since from an early age he has been 
thrown into the very front rank of the pioneer 
laborers for the settlement and development of 
the country. 

Mr. Jones was born on August 27, 1864, 
at Wilson's Lane, near Ogden. Utah, a son of 



Thomas E. and Jane (Nelson) Jones, who. na- 
tives of England, were numbered as members 
of a company of Mormon immigrants into 
Utah in 1848, when everything was in a state 
of pristine newness and the whole country was 
almost an untouched stretch of sagebrush 
plains. The father located in the little central 
village of Salt Lake City, and engaged for a 
time in soapmaking, thereafter removing to 
Kaysville, where he was a farmer. In 1863 
the home was transferred to the neighborhood 
of Ogden and later to Hooper, where, in 1884. 
the father died after an industrious and profit- 
able life, at the age of seventy-five years : the 
mother, after a long life of usefulness, is still 
residing at Hooper at eighty years of age. She 
was one of those heroic women who drew hand- 
carts across the plains, and on the journey she 
lost every one of her relatives, who, worn out 
by the hardships they experienced, died and 
were buried on the incoming trail. 

Thomas E. Jones was early handicapped in 
the race of life by the loss of one of his legs, 
which was amputated on account of a white 
swelling, the operation being a painful one, as 
no anaesthetics were used. When Joseph was 
about seventeen years of age he engaged in 
railroad construction work on the Oregon 
Short Line Railroad, in which connection, and 
in other employments, he continued until 1884. 
when he came to the Upper Snake River Val- 
ley, and took up a homestead of 160 acres near 
Lewisville, where he still maintains his home, 
by his industry, energy and thrift making many 
valuable improvements on the land, and having 
now a highly-improved and productive estate, 
finely irrigated and with substantial and con- 
venient buildings. Everything in the valley at 
that time was primitive, and it indicates bow- 
early a pioneer he was. when we know that lie 
was one of the first eleven individuals to orig- 
inate and form the Parks and Lewisville Canal 
Co., and that his was the first name recorded 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



267 



for a water right. To secure provisions in the 
early days, Mr. Jones used to cut and haul fire- . 
wood to Idaho Falls, and from the proceeds of 
its sale he purchased the necessary supplies for 
his home. He has traveled up and down both 
sides of the Platte River, and the ruts cast up 
by the wheels of the old-time emigrant wagons 
were plainly seen by him. He has been too 
busy with the culture and improvement of his 
land and with other still more important du- 
ties, to devote much time to the discussion of 
political affairs, but he is in full accord with the 
principles of the Republican political party. In 
the Church of Latter Day Saints he has ren- 
dered acceptable service, being a faithful mis- 
sionary in Nebraska for about two years, while 
on November 5, 1896, he was ordained as a 
member of the Seventies. 

On December 9, 1887, Mr. Jones and Miss 
Harriet A. Robinson were wedded. She was 
born at Hooper, Utah, on October 1, 1872, the 
daughter of Joseph L. and Mary (Taylor) 
Robinson, long-time residents of Hooper, Utah, 
the mother, however, dying in 1889 at Willow. 
Creek, Utah, at sixty-six years, the death of the 
father occurring at Uinta, in the same state, 
at the advanced age of eighty-two years, 
while on a visit to his daughter. The names ot 
the children who have come to the marriage 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Jones are : Joseph 
Thomas, Emma J. (died in infancy), Mary 
Elizabeth, Mabel (died aged sixteen months), 
Ada E. (died at three months of ag'e), Lee Al- 
bert, Sadie (died in infancy), and Clarence W. 
The family stands high in the esteem of their 
many friends, and Mr. Jones is considered as 
one of the best citizens of the community, pub- 
lic-spirited, generous, and a man of strong so- 
cial traits. 

REESE JONES. 

Within the confines of Idaho, as well as the 
numerous states of the Great West, can be 



found many young men of intelligence, ability 
and inflexible integrity of purpose, w!k> have 
won success by their own efforts in the pro- 
ductive industries which have made this com- 
monwealth one of so marked importance, and 
such .a one is Reese Jones, a successful and 
prosperous merchant of Basalt, who, being es- 
sentially the architect of his own fortunes, is 
not only a prominent business man, but a citi- 
zen valued, respected and honored. He was 
born in Wales, on May 18, 1868, a son of 
David and Ann Jones, and accompanied his 
parents to Utah with one of the Mormon com- 
panies in 1870, where the family home was 
made at South Weber, the mother there dying, 
and the father, in 1900, removing to Basalt, 
where he now maintains his residence. 

Reese Jones attained his manhood in Utah, 
there receiving the educational advantages of 
the excellent schools and becoming thoroughly 
identified with all methods of conducting suc- 
cessful farming and stockraising, in 1890 com-, 
ing to Basalt and engaging in the development 
of a ranch, which he there homesteaded and 
still owns. In 1900 Mr. Jones became a mem- 
ber of the Basalt Mercantile Co., whose store 
and center of business operations is maintained 
at Basalt, where is displayed for trade a fine 
and well-selected stock of general merchandise, 
containing everything suitable for and adapted 
to the needs of the people of this section, and 
in this merchandising he is still connected. He 
is also a member of the Mormon church in 
good standing and of deep religious principles. 

Mr. Jones has been twice married ; first, on 
May 29, 1888, in Utah, to Miss Clara Winks, 
a native of that state, by whom he had five 
children : Maud, Lester, Robert, Mary and 
Clara. His second marriage was in Bingham 
county on March 12, 1898, to Miss Catharine 
Crofts, a native of Utah, and a daughter of 
John and Ellen (Smith) Crofts, residents of 
Bineham countv, and three children grace their 



268 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



family circle: Nellie, Ruth and Elmer. Mr. 
Jones has demonstrated himself to be a pro- 
gressive man who sees with clear vision his op- 
portunities for advancement, and he is alert and 
resolute in seizing and using them. His skill 
and industry as a ranchman, apprehensive 
grasp of the principles underlying the success 
of commercial operations, his intelligent aid in 
all matters of public interest in the community, 
and his engaging social qualities give him a 
strong hold on the confidence and regard of 
his fellows and also a well-justified influence 
among the people. 

THOMAS R. JONES. 

The family of which the worthy gentle- 
man whose name heads this review is a 
representative member has been noted for its 
connection with the early pioneer life of widely 
varying sections of the country and also for 
its sterling patriotism and gallant military 
service, while he himself has taken prominent 
part, not only in the pioneer life of the new 
sections of the land where he has from time 
to time made his residence, but also in the 
commercial and society circles of the same lo- 
calities. A successful, shrewd and courteous 
man of business, he is a factor of consequence 
in the community where he maintains his 
home. 

Thomas R. Jones, now a resident of the 
near vicinity of Blackfoot, Idaho, is a son of 
Watkin H. and Anna (Reese) Jones, early res- 
idents and pioneer workers in the development 
of the great state of Minnesota, where, on 
September 8, 1867, at Le Seuer, occurred his 
birth. His maternal grandfather was one of 
the earliest and most prominent of the pioneer 
settlers of Mankato, and his father came to 
Le Seuer so early that the settlers in that 
new country could be numbered upon the fin- 
gers of a man's hand. In 1864 he enlisted as 



a Union soldier in the Eleventh Minnesota 
Regiment, and conducted himself with bravery 
and unflinching honor during the whole time 
of his service, being honorably discharged 
from military duty at the close of the Civil 
war, and, in recognition of that fact he is now 
receiving a pension. He married Anna Reese, 
a daughter of John Reese, in 1866, and by her 
had a family of four children, the subject of 
this review being the eldest. After a diligent 
and useful life of activity and kindness Mrs. 
Jones passed into the Silent Land in Septem- 
ber, 1902, at the age of fifty-six years. 

After some years passed in farm life near 
the place of his birth Watkin H. Jones became 
in 1873 one °f tne nrst settlers of Cottonwood 
count}-. Minn., where he has since maintained 
his residence and developed a fine farm out of 
the tract of government land he there acquired 
as a homestead. This valuable property he 
sold in 1898 and engaged in merchandising 
operations at Windom, in which he is now 
actively engaged, having accomplished fifty- 
nine vears of life. 

Thomas R. Jones attained a vigorous 
physique and an excellent knowledge of pio- 
neer husbandry on the paternal acres in Cot- 
tonwood county,. Minn. The pioneer con- 
ditions presented slight advantages in the mat- 
ter of schooling, but, such as they were, and 
as opportunity afforded during the slack per- 
iods of farm labor, they were diligently im- 
proved. Attaining here his majority, he then 
purchased a 160-acre farm at 'Westbrook. in 
his native state, and, on June 26, 1889, unitea 
his fortunes for life with Miss Mary E. Mor- 
gan, of Austin, Minn., whose parents, Thomas 
and Felicia (Lowery) Morgan, were among 
the earliest pioneer settlers of Moore county 
of that state, her father being still a resident 
on the homestead he there took up. 

The early years of the wedded life of Mr. 
Jones were passed in wholesome farm life on 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



269 



his Minnesota farm, and he then took a west- 
ward flight, for, on April 5, 1890, he moved 
to Helena, Mont., where for nine months 
he resided, then came to Dubois, Idaho, and 
engaged in the raising of hay, but it not 
proving a financial success, after giving it dil- 
igent and earnest labor for eighteen months 
he moved to Pocatello, where he was employed 
in the shops of the Oregon Short Line Rail- 
road for a time, thereafter being connected 
with the operations of the water-works of 
Pocatello until June, 1897, when he rented a 
farm north of Blackfoot, the beautiful capital 
of Bingham county, where he successfully con- 
ducted stock and hayraising operations for four 
busy years. 

In 1901 Mr. Jones purchased his present 
home, a beautiful estate of eighty acres, situ- 
ated one-half mile southeast of the village of 
Blackfoot, it being considered the finest located 
ranch in all of this section of the Snake River 
Valley, and on which is a valuable young or- 
chard of twenty acres, containing fine and 
thrifty specimens of the excellent Idaho ap- 
ple, prune and pear trees, the excellence of the 
crop being fully in harmony with the hand- 
some appearance of the orchard. Aside from 
his active ranching operations Mr. Jones was 
largely interested in securing the establishment 
of the pioneer creamery of Blackfoot, being 
one of the largest stockholders and the vice- 
president of the company. 

In 1894 Mr. Jones was a charter member 
of the lodge of the Woodmen of the World es- 
tablished at Pocatello, being afterwards trans- 
ferred to become a member of the lodge at 
Blackfoot, in which he is a past councillor. In 
politics he has ever been allied with the Re- 
publican party as an active worker in, its 
campaigns, being also a man highly respected 
in the community. He served one term as a 
justice of the peace most acceptably during" his 
residence in Minnesota, but does not crave of- 



ficial station, preferring to be left free for his 
business activities. 

Mrs. Jones was for eight years previous 
to her marriage a popular educator of Minne- 
sota and Dakota, standing high as a teacher. 
The reputation she there acquired she has 
ably maintained as a successful teacher in the 
schools of Dubois, Pocatello, and Basalt. Two 
winsome children, Felicia, born on September 
26. 1899, and Marguerite, born on December 
19, 1902, constitute the element completing 
the household of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, which is 
well known for its genial and extensive hos- 
pitality. 

WILLIAM A. JONES. 

The managing partner of a large drygoods 
establishment in the city of Pocatello, which 
has a strong hold on the public confidence and 
a high place in the public esteem, William A. 
Jones is one of the progressive men of Ban- 
nock county, Idaho, well entitled to recognition 
as a careful, conservative, successful business 
factor in the mercantile life of the county. His 
parents, William H. and Rachel (Griffeths) 
lones, were natives of Wales, who, emisrratinsr 
from their native land a number of years ago, 
migrated to Missouri, locating at the town of 
New Cambria, where their son, William A. 
Jones, was born on March 17, 1866, the second 
of their three children. 

The early life of Mr. Jones passed very 
much as does that of a majority of American 
lads, being marked by no events worthy of es- 
pecial mention. He attended the public schools 
of his neighborhood in the winter seasons and 
was employed in various kinds of manual labor 
during the rest of the year. At the age of 
fourteen years he entered Brookfield Academy, 
from which he was graduated two years later, 
then went to Kansas City, where he remained 
for ten years employed as a salesman in the 
drygoods business, becoming widely and favor- 



>7o 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



ably known in commercial circles. In 189 1 he 
removed to Laramie, YVyo., and became the 
head salesman of the Laramie Drygoods Co., 
remaining in the employ of that company until 
April. 1902. At that time he came to Poca- 
tello and organized the W. A. Jones Drygoods 
Co., which began business in that city on June 
26th of that year. 

Mr. Jones is an accomplished business man, 
and. by his gentlemanly demeanor and courte- 
ous bearing, he has so won the confidence of the 
public that his store has never lacked a well- 
paving trade. He has now one of the largest 
and most popular drygoods emporiums in the 
city, and selects his wares after carefully study- 
ing the needs of the community and the taste 
of those who only purchase first-class goods. 
He gives untiring and conscientious attention 
to his business, but at the same time he has an 
abiding and serviceable interest in the general 
welfare of the community, and is always 
ready to take his place in the working force de- 
voted to its promotion. 

In 1898 he was elected to represent his 
ward in the city council of Laramie, and as a 
member of that body was zealous and diligent 
in behalf of every element of progress and im- 
provement in the public life of the municipal- 
ity : yet, while standing for progress in the full 
sense of the term, he was nevertheless a dis- 
creet and conservative legislator, proceeding 
slowly in matters of public expenditure, espe- 
cially for things a city can well do without ; and 
he was also instrumental in bringing about im- 
portant city legislation, showing himself ca- 
pable and ready at all times to lose sight of 
personal interests in promoting the general 
good. 

In fraternal relations, Mr. Jones belongs to 
the Pythian brotherhood, being for several 
years the keeper of records and seal (of the 
Laramie lodge of the order. Politically he is 
pronounced in his allegiance to the Republican 



party, but has never had any aspirations f< >r 
place or public distinction, preferring to devote 
his entire time and attention to his business af- 
fairs and to the discharge of his duties as a 
citizen. He was reared in the rather strict 
teachings of the Presbyterian church, of which 
he is a faithful and devoted member, as is also 
his wife, both of them being highly respected in 
the congregation at Laramie, and a'lso in that 
at Pocatello, to which they now belong, as well 
as in society circles. He was happily married 
in June, 1892. to Miss Minnie Hughes, a culti- 
vated lady of beautiful Christian character, who 
has borne him two daughters and one son. Lois. 
Cora and Alfred. 

W. R. JONES. 

The progressive men of this section ot 
Idaho, who have taken hold of the commercial 
industries of the new commonwealth with 
strong and sinewy hands, and compelled them 
to yield a ready tribute to the efforts and happi- 
ness of man. and to the development of the 
community, are entitled to great credit for their 
labors, and can not be too highly praised for the 
energy, the endurance and the. breadth of view 
they have exhibited, and in this number W. R. 
Jones is worthy of a high position. His work 
in the various activities of this state has been 
vigorous, forceful and fruitful, while his social 
qualities have endeared him to a large circle 
of friends and acquaintances. 

Mr. Jones was born on June 4, 1858. at 
Williamsburg, Iowa, being a son of Richard 
P. and Louisa (Edwards) Jones, natives of 
Wales, where his father was born on May 16. 
18 1 6, a son of Edward Jones, who emigrated 
from his native land in 1855 an< l located in 
Iowa, where he enjoyed the distinction of be- 
ing a pioneer smelter of the whole Western 
country. Five years later he came to the state 
of Xevada and was there one of the first lo- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



271 



cators of the famous Comstock mine; remain- 
ing there prosperously engaged, and becoming 
the founder of the brisk town of Eureka, Nev., 
until 1872, when, becoming associated and 
largely interested in the mines and smelters of 
Utah, he made his home in Salt Lake City, 
thence in 1877 removing to the Malad Valley, 
where he passed his closing years amid its 
pleasant rural surroundings, his death occur- 
ring in 1889, his wife surviving him until 1895. 
This worthy couple were the parents of ten chil- 
dren, and occupied a more than ordinary posi- 
tion in the social circles of the various com- 
munities where they resided. 

W. R. Jones attained manhood amid the 
primitive scenes and peculiar life of the rugged 
mountain region of Nevada, receiving, how- 
ever, especial advantages in the way of educa- 
tion, and at the age of twenty-one years he en- 
gaged in ranching and stockraising, and also in 
the manufacturing of lime and in mining. In 
1885 occurred his advent in Idaho, where he 
located at Wolverine, in Bingham county. 
From his first residence here he found profit 
and achieved enviable success in all lines of in- 
dustry to which he turned his attention, con- 
tinuing a successful career until 1898 when he 
engaged in merchandising at Shelley, there dis- 
playing an ample stock of general merchan- 
dise adapted to the wants and necessities of the 
people of this section. The store was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1900, but it was speedily re- 
built, the burned stock being replaced by one 
of greatly increased proportions. In 1900 Mr. 
Jones was commissioned postmaster of the 
Shelley postoffice, and, as a member of the Re- 
publican political part}', he exercises influence 
with his associates. Fraternally he is a mem- 
ber of the Masonic .fraternity and of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Of this latter 
organization he is at present the district dep- 
uty, being also the venerable consul in the order 
of Modern Woodmen of America. He is also 



connected with the Woodmen of the World. 
Mr. Jones was married at Malad, Utah, on 
March 17, 1879, with Miss Mary A. Williams, 
a daughter of Meshach and Elizabeth (Lewis) 
Williams, natives of Wales, her birth, however, 
occurring in Utah. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have 
had ten children, seven of whom are living, 
namely: William, Llewellyn, Walter, Mabel, 
Sarah, Burton, May, Edith, deceased, Arthur, 
deceased, and Richard, also deceased. Mr. 
Jones is the locater and owner of the Queen 
Mab mines at Wolverine, and is a busy man of 
affairs at all times and in all places. Fully, 
ably and consistently maintaining a high stand- 
ard of business life, he has won the esteem and 
confidence of the community in which he re- 
sides as well as of many friends and associates 
in other states. 

WILLIAM H. and JOHN F. JONES. 

The Jones Brothers are identified with the 
first operations in the development of the vir- 
gin territory of the upper valley of the Snake 
River of Idaho, having cast in their lot with 
the people in the pioneer days of the settle- 
ment, and having continuously given a hearty 
co-operation with every enterprise intended to 
advance the importance of the valley or in any 
manner to benefit the people. They are the 
sons of David and Ann Jones, natives of 
Wales, where the father was long employed 
in connection with large iron works, but, "emi- 
grating in 1869, he came to Utah with his 
family and there made his home on the 
Weber River in South Weber, now Blaine. 
He came to Idaho in 1899 a t tne a S e °f seven- 
ty-four and made a home at Basalt, Idaho, 
where he is living, the mother having passed 
to the great beyond at the age of sixty-nine. 

William H. Jones, son of the above men- 
tioned parents, was born on November 26, 
1859, at Traforest, Wales, and in his early 



-'/- 



■PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



childhood accompanied his parents on the 
long ocean voyage across the Atlantic and the 
longer and more dangerous and exhausting 
travel across the continent, and his earl}' 
years in Utah were given to the assistance of 
his parents until he was seventeen years old, 
when he commenced work for himself in con- 
nection with mining operations in quartz and 
coal, at which he continued until 1883, the 
year of his advent in Rigby. Idaho, where he 
located on a homestead contiguous to the fu- 
ture city, on which he resided nine years, then 
engaged in mercantile operations at Rigby 
for three vears, afterwards being connected 
with various kinds of employment until 1899, 
when he made his home on his present prop- 
erty. 

A Republican in politics, he has ever been 
ready to give a logical reason for his support 
of his political or religious principles, being 
an elder and teacher in the Church of Latter 
Day Saints, and, although by the exigencies 
of his youth he was debarred from the ad- 
vantages of a scholastic education, by his own 
efforts and study, combined with an intelligent 
reading of the world's best literature, he has 
become a truly self-educated man and an in- 
telligent and thoughtful observer of the prog- 
ress of events in national and international af- 
fairs. He was joined in matrimony with Miss 
Annie Bambrough, of Weber, Utah, on July 
10, 1S84, a daughter of Joseph and Margaret 
(Charlton) Bambrough, who came from Eng- 
land to Pennsylvania in their early married 
life, and, in i860, continued their westward 
way to Utah, where they have since resided 
in the valley of Weber River. Mr. and Mrs. 
Jones are parents of the following named 
children : Ida Florence, born on September 
17. 1884, the first child born to the settlers at 
Rigby; Vollie M.. Margaret A.. Catherine E., 
Oscar W., Lanethia E., Lenvis A., Clements 
L.. Llovd M. and Elmina V. 



John F. Jones is the eldest of the seven 
children of his father's family and at sixteen 
years of age he began life as a miner, pur- 
suing this adventurous and fascinating voca- 
tion for ten years in different mining camps 
of Utah, in the early 'eighties coming to the 
Snake River Valley, where he has since abided, 
taking an active interest in the development 
of the country and being now nicely located 
in Bingham count}" in the vicinity of Lyon 
postoffice, and devoting himself to the stock- 
raising and farming branches of husbandry, 
and in this connection he will state that he 
was the first person to raise Iucern hay in 
all this section of the county. W. H. Jones 
was the first person to take up land at Rigby. 
and the brothers were the first to take out 
water for irrigation purposes from the Snake 
River and also the first to recover water 
rights and they were early identified with the 
making of the Lewisville Canal, in which 
company W. H. Jones was long a director. 

JOSEPH H. JORDAN. 

In considering the careers of the prominent 
and popular stockmen and ranchers of the 
Snake River Valley, Joseph Jordan, whose 
home and center of business activities is main- 
tained at Riverside, near Blackfoot in Bingham 
county, Idaho, where, on his prolific homestead 
of 160 acres of finely situated land, he is en- 
gaged in the agricultural pursuits common to 
this section of the country, particularly de 
voting himself to stockraising. we have to do 
with a true son of the West, since his birth oc- 
curred in Springville. Utah county. Utah, on 
June 4. 1856. being a son of John and Eliza 
(Robbins) Jordan. 

John Jordan was a son of John Jordan and 
a native of County Berkshire. England, born 
there in 18 12. At the age of eighteen years, 
accompanied by a brother, he emigrated from 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



273 



England to the United States, first making his 
home in Michigan, and thereafter driving 
across the plains to Salt Lake City, and in 1853 
settling in Sanpete county, where he was for 
a long time engaged in the vocation of stone- 
cutting, passing away from earth in the win- 
ter of 1882, his burial occurring at Heber City, 
Utah. A quiet, unobtrusive man of deeply re- 
ligious principles, he was identified with the 
Mormon church for nearly all of his life, hold- 
ing many positions of usefulness in that con- 
nection, at the time of his death being one of 
the Seventies. His wife was a native of 
Shropshire, England, where she resided until 
her emigration. She was married in Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, to Mr. Jordan, thereafter becom- 
ing the mother of four children, and dying in 
March, 1886, at the age of seventy-two years, 
at Heber City. She was a daughter of Rich- 
ard and Esther (Humphries) Robbins, also na- 
tives of England. 

Joseph H. Jordan had the educational ad- 
vantages of the schools of Utah and with true 
filial solicitude he remained with his parents, 
being their youngest child, taking the kindest 
care of them until their deaths, in 1887, when 
he was about thirty-one years of age. Shortly 
after the death of his parents Mr. Jordan was 
united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Given, 
a native of Utah and a daughter of James and 
Agnes (Murray) Given, her father being a na- 
tive of Ireland, who came at an early date in 
the 'fifties to Utah, soon thereafter settling near 
Evanston, Wyo., in a short time, however, 
removing the family to Heber City, Utah, 
which place was his residence until his death 
in 1888. His father, William Given, a native 
of the north of Ireland, came to Utah in ad- 
vanced years and there passed the remainder 
of his life. Agnes (Murray) Given was born 
in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died on February 
10, 1855. She was a daughter of Robert and 
Agnes Murray, both natives of Scotland, her 



father, who was a mariner, losing his life while 
on a voyage. 

From the time of his marriage Mr. Jordan 
has been actively engag-ed in mining and ranch- 
ing, following ranching in Utah until he came 
to Idaho in 1888 and filed his claim to his beau- 
tiful homestead at Riverside, near Blackfoot, 
Bingham county, where he has since resided 
and is busily engaged in the progressive devel- 
opment of his ranch and prosperously conduct- 
ing stockraising and farming, having some 
beautiful animals in his herd of stock, being a 
successful man of business and affairs and one 
of the representative ranchmen of his county, 
himself and family ever being known as law- 
abiding people, generously aiding and support- 
ing all matters connected with the public wel- 
fare, and having a large range of acquaintance- 
ship in this section of the county. Mr. Jor- 
dan is a Populist in political belief, taking an 
advanced and intelligent position in politics, as 
well as in social and public affairs, while as a 
school trustee, he has rendered distinguished 
service in the educational development of his 
portion of the county. His family consists of 
these children: William Elmer, James A., Leo- 
nora, Lillie and Clarence, deceased. 

SOREN YORGESEN. 

One of the representative agriculturists 
and stockmen of Bingham county, Idaho, 
where his home is maintained at the thriving 
town of Shelley, Soren Yorgesen, the subject 
of this review, has demonstrated that he 
possesses business qualities of a high order, 
and occupies an enviable place in the com- 
munity, aside from his agricultural interests, 
being the capable and popular bookkeeper of 
the Shelley Mercantile Co. of that place ; and, 
in a work of this character, which purports to 
give some items of interest of some of the 
progressive men of this section of the countrv. 



274 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



Mr. Yorgesen demands a full share of atten- 
tion. 

Mr. Yorgesen was born in the little 
kingdom of Denmark, on April 19, 1863, be- 
ing a son of Yorgen and Maria (Jensen) Yor- 
gesen, and he was but eleven years of age- 
when occurred the migration of his parents 
to this country, where the}' located at Racine. 
Wis. In 1 88 1 they moved to Nebraska, 
and. after tarrying there for a year, came 
to Utah and there engaged in farming until 
1891, when both returned to Xew Lisbon, 
Wis., where the mother died and the father 
now resides, being the father of six children 
and a consistent member of the Mormon 
church. 

An active, energetic youth, Soren Yorge- 
sen passed his boyhood in Wisconsin, steadily 
availing himself of the educational oppor- 
tunities presented to him and acquiring an 
early maturity, and on the family arrival at 
Utah he commenced his personal business 
activities by engaging in sheepraising. In this 
he was prospered, his flocks increasing and 
his financial reinforcement steadily advancing. 
In 1889 he transferred his interests, his home 
and his business headquarters to Bingham 
county. Idaho, where he purchased land and 
embarked more extensively in the lines of 
industrial activity to which he had devoted 
himself, and where he is now running a fine 
band of sheep and owns 240 acres of valuable 
land immediately adjoining the town of Shel- 
ley, and in both his general farming and stock- 
raising he has met with success. 

His energy and careful supervision are 
manifested in the neat and thrifty appearance 
of the place and in the substantial buildings 
and improvements, while the excellent grades 
of stock which he raises indicate his progres- 
siveness in that leading department of this 
state. His methods are systematic, his judg- 
ment rarely at fault, and his diligence and per- 



severance are continuous, so that success has 
crowned his efforts and he is the possessor of 
a handsome competency. In 1901 he accepted 
a position as bookkeeper with the Shelley 
Mercantile Co.. which he is now filling with 
capability and according to the best business 
systems. 

In 1898 his duties to his church cal'ed him 
to Wisconsin as a missionary and for two 
years he labored with unflagging industry in 
that state with marked results. The depart- 
ments of industry of which we have spoken. 
fully indicate the broad range of activities 
with which Mr. Yorgesen has been success- 
fully connected, and we would incidentally 
mention that for four years he was the popu- 
lar proprietor of the Yorgesen Hotel at Shel- 
ley, while for thre* years his administration 
of the duties of the office of justice of the 
peace of Shelley precinct met with public ap- 
probation. A member of the Republican 
political party, Mr. Yorgesen is interested in 
everything that tends to the growth and suc- 
cess of the neighborhood, and in all public 
matters of a local nature that seem to him 
beneficial in their inception and completion 
he exerts a stimulating influence. 

On January 2. 1866, at Logan, Utah. Mr. 
Yorgesen married with Miss Mary Christen- 
sen, a daughter of C. A. and Maria Christen- 
sen, natives of Denmark, who for the sake of 
religious freedom early emigrated to Utah, 
where Mrs. Yorgesen was born. Mr. and- 
Mrs. Yorgesen have the following children: 
Alonza S.. Oscar C. Arthur H., Luley M.. 
Nora G. and Eva R. Both of the parents are 
prominent members of the Mormon church, 
and their labors have contributed not a little 
to its advancement, while they are rich in the 
possession of those qualities which endear 
them to the best people, and they are num- 
bered among the leading citizens of the com- 
munity in which thev live. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



275 



WILLIAM G. KIMBALL. 

This well-known and prominent merchant 
of Rigby is the son of Heber C. and 
Amanda (Gheen) Kimball, and of his dis- 
tinguished father, Bancroft, in his History of 
Utah, page 436, thus writes : "Heber Chase 
Kimball was a native of Sheldon, Vt., where 
he was born in 1801. When ten years of age 
his father removed to West Bloomfield, N. Y., 
in which town he afterwards worked as a 
blacksmith in his father's shop. In 1820, his 
father having lost his property, he was com- 
pelled to seek his own livelihood, and, after 
suffering much hardship, found employment 
with his brother, who was a potter by trade, 
and removed with him to Mendon, N. Y. He 
was converted to Mormonism by the preach- 
ing of Phineas H. Young, .and in 1832 was 
baptized, and soon afterward ordained an 
elder. In September, 1832, he went to Kirt- 
land with Brigham and Joseph Young and 
there met the prophet. In 1835 he was 
chosen a member of the first quorum of the 
twelve, and from that date until the expulsion 
from Nauvoo his time was mainly spent in 
missionary labors in the Eastern states and 
in England. Returning from Salt Lake to 
Winter Quarters with the main body of the 
pioneers, he was appointed first counsellor to 
the president, which office he held until his 
decease in June, 1868. On the organization 
of the State of Deseret, he was elected lieu- 
tenant-governor and chief justice and later 
became president of the council of the legis- 
lature assembly. A man of singular gener- 
osity, integrity and purity of heart, there are 
few whose names are held in more esteem 
among the Latter Day Saints than that of 
President Kimball." He was ' married at 
Nauvoo, his Wife being a native of Missouri, 
and in 1847 he went to Salt Lake City, his 
wife coming in 1848, and there he built the 



first gristmill of Utah and also the first card- 
ing mill, the wife spinning and weaving the 
cloth for their clothing. By his business 
ability he acquired wealth, at one time being 
one of the wealthiest men of Utah, and he 
was the pioneer of Kimball's Island, and dur- 
ing the dark days of the famine he was the 
only one who had foreseen it and put by a store 
of provisions, and he not only furnished Brig- 
ham Young with necessary provisions but 
supplied many of the settlers without any ex- 
pectation of return or pay. He also had a 
cane mill and was the first to grind cane 
and make molasses. 

William G. Kimball was born on March 
3, 1851, at Salt Lake City, Utah, and received 
special advantages for an education, in his 
eighteenth year, starting in life for himself by 
engaging in construction work on the Union 
Pacific Railroad for some months. He then 
was identified with freighting operations for a 
period of seven years, thereafter in 1876 tak- 
ing up a ranch in Bear Lake county, Idaho, 
and also working at carpentry, continuing in 
these vocations for nine years. Then, in 1885, 
he came to the Snake River country and took 
up a homestead claim at Independence, where 
he conducted farming (after taking a trip to 
Arizona, where he had purposed to locate) 
purchasing a Dane's relinquishment for a 
team of horses and 100 pounds of flour, fenc- 
ing ninety acres of land and hiring cows, thus 
securing the increase as well as the sale of the 
butter he made. He was the first secretary 
and treasurer of the Texas Slough Canal Co., 
and afterwards became its president, holding 
this position for three years. He was one of 
the committee that drafted the by-laws, rules 
and regulations and laid the foundation of the 
Burton meeting house. He was also the first 
man to haul black sandrock for the foundation 
of the new Burton schoolhouse, donating also 
$75 towards its construction. 



276 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



After this life had continued for four years 
he became so "involved in debt for farm ma- 
chinery, for which he had mortgaged his prop- 
erty, that he was forced to sell it. receiving 
$2,500. Paying up the mortgage in 189S he 
removed to Rigby, and established a small 
general store which his wife managed, while 
he with the help of a carpenter built a model 
cottage residence which he has tastefully sur- 
rounded with trees and made one of the most 
attractive places of the vicinity. The owner 
of the building containing his goods having 
use for it, Mr. Kimball erected his present 
place of business on the corner of the two prin- 
cipal streets of Rigby. carries a well-selected 
stock of general merchandise and is conduct- 
ing a steadily advancing trade with a class 
of representative people, who appreciate the 
fair dealing which is here accorded to them. 
After coming to Rigby he was elected as a 
committee to open up a right of way for the 
Oregon Short Line branch railroad, which 
work was excellently accomplished. 

Mr. Kimball is a man of unusual ability, 
force of character and executive powers. 
While at Paris he cut fifteen acres of oats with 
a hand cradle, hiring a man to bind them. 
Before his farming operations at Paris he had 
never done farming work, but he cleared off 
the sagebrush from his land at Independence, 
ploughed the land, sowed the grain and har- 
vested the crops, and was complimented by 
Pres. Thomas E. Ricks, who made the state- 
ment that "William was the only practical 
farmer in the valley." He has liberally aided 
in public enterprises and is one of the prin- 
cipal shareholders of the Great Feeder and 
also of the Rigby Town Hall. He is now in 
the incumbency of the office of trustee of the 
village of Rigby. and from his first coming 
here he has been one of the main pushers of 
the prosperity of the town. Strongly attached 
to the principles and policies of the Repub- 



lican party Air. Kimball is efficiently serving 
on the central committee of his party for 
Fremont county. 

On March 13. 1876, Air. Kimball was 
joined in matrimony with Miss Calista F. 
Thornton, a native of Algona. Wis., and 
daughter of Samuel and Jane (Hickenlooper) 
Thornton, her maternal grandfather. William 
Hickenlooper, being one of the earliest 
bishops of Salt Lake City. She came to Utah 
about August. 1873, one year ahead of her 
parents. She went to Parowan in southern 
Utah, and lived with her uncle, Horace Thorn- 
ton, for six months and then returned to Salt 
Lake and made her home with her grand- 
father. William Hickenlooper. finally going to 
work for Charles Kimball, a brother of W. 
G. Kimball, and her marriage with the latter 
was consummated at his place in 1876. The 
children of this well-mated couple are Flor- 
ence A., born May 11. 1877: Mary C, 
November 15. 187S; Temperance. Novem- 
ber 24, 1880; Pearl. December 4. [882; 
Birdie Prudence. January 15, 1885: Calista. 
May 6, 1887; Idaho. September 30. 1889; 
William Chase. August 24. [891 : Charles J., 
July 2 7,, 1894. The second, third, fourth and 
fifth were born at Paris, Bear Lake county, 
and the four youngest at Independence. 
Idaho. 

KARL KEPPNER. 

This worthy resident of Fremont county. 
Idaho, who. on his ranch two and one-half 
miles from Rexburg. is in an intelligent and 
systematic manner conducting extensive mar- 
ket gardening operations, is one of the contri- 
butions of the German Fatherland to the devel- 
opment and progress of the Great West, since 
his birth, education and thirty years of his life 
were accomplished in that great country. Mr. 
Keppner was born at Baden, Germany, on Au- 
gust 14, 183S. being a son of John and Eliza- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



277 



beth (Dorle) Keppner, in which city the father 
for years was a prosperous baker. When Karl 
was fifteen' years of age the conclusion of a fam- 
ily council was that he should serve an appren- 
ticeship at the tailor's trade, and. this he did, 
serving according to the customs of his native 
land, in seven years becoming the full master 
of the vocation, and after this apprenticeshio 
was finished he was diligently employed at his 
trade for eight more years, thereafter uniting 
himself with the Mormon church through the 
faithful ministrations of faithful missionaries, 
and coming the' long way to Utah, where he 
arrived in September of 186 1, crossing the 
plains with ox trains of Mormon immigrants. 
After working' at Salt Lake for one winter, 
he, in 1862, went to Providence, later going 
to Logan, Utah, where for a time he was em- 
ployed .on farms, thus familiarizing- himself 
with the new conditions confronting him in this 
frontier land. 

After one season's work at Franklin Mr. < 
Keppner went, in 1863, to the Bear Lake Val- 
ley country of Utah, where his stay was lim- 
ited to two years of time, thereafter returning 
to Logan, where he was connected in a mechan- 
ical way with the erection of the Mormon Tem- 
ple from its incipiency until its completion. In 
1884 he formed one of the company which came 
to Rexburg under the leadership of President 
Ricks, and, thus becoming a pioneer settler, he 
gave diligent and well-directed labors to the 
work of development and improvement of the 
new country, becoming interested in the con- 
struction of all of the various irrigating canals, 
and being also at the present writing a stock- 
holder in the Rexburg Canal Co. Under the 
patient care and wise and discriminating ex- 
periments of Mr. Keppner in the gardening and 
horticultural lines of agriculture, much knowl- 
edge has been acquired of the capabilities of the 
soil and climate, and he has demonstrated, by 
his own efforts and experiments, that this sec- 



tion of the state has a bright future in its fruit- 
raising possibilities. 

Mr. Keppner has been a valued and con- 
sistent member of the Church of Latter Day 
Saints for nearly forty-four years. His life 
has ever been in accord with the instructions 
. of the church, and he has been ordained, conse- 
crated and set apart to the offices of priest, high 
priest and counsellor, in all of the duties con- 
nected therewith maintaining himself as a pru- 
dent and God-fearing servant of the Lord. On 
September 11, 1865, at Logan, Utah, Mr. 
Keppner and Miss Christina Nelson were pro- 
nounced man and wife. She is a daughter of 
Morris and Christina (Peterson) Nelson, na- 
tives of Denmark, the father dying" in Den- 
mark, being killed in the war between Prussia 
and Denmark, as did the second husband of the 
mother, who, in 1864, at Logan, Utah, formed 
her third marriage, and, a venerable old lady, 
she is now residing at Smithfield, Utah, being 
esteemed by the entire community. The chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Keppner are: John, 
Charlotte, Charles L., Mary R., Joseph, Hy- . 
rum, Lillie, Emma and Lehi. The "family is 
noted for its domestic virtues and the hospital- 
ity so cordially extended alike to the numerous 
friends and to "the stranger within the gates."' 

ORIN S. LEE, Jr. 

Another one of the native sons of the West 
who has shown the capability of grappling with 
the unbounded possibilities that lead to the high- 
ways of success in connection with the develop- 
ment of the new lands of this section of the 
state, Orin S. Lee, Jr., has surely' no cause to 
regret that he has cast in his lot in life with 
the rapidly growing and progressive communi- 
ties that are doing so much to bring the ad- 
vantages of this section of Idaho, and particu- 
larly of Bingham county, to the notice of the 
world. Although one of the vounger ranchmen 



278 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



of his section, he has so comported himself by 
his wise and discriminating operations that he 
stands prominently connected with the agricul- 
tural interests of the state. 

Mr. Lee was torn on April 13, 1862. in 
Summit county, Utah, a son of Orin S. and 
Sally A. (Miles) Lee, his father being a native 
of Kalamazoo, Mich., who when a young man 
became a member of the Church of Latter Day 
Saints, and in 1858 came to Utah, crossing the 
plains with a Mormon caravan, settling first 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he remained for 
a number of years, thence removing to Summit 
county, where he was a prosperous farmer and 
stockgrower for a term of years. Thereafter 
he came, in 1894, to Bingham county, Idaho. . 
where he located his home ten miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls, and is still residing, as is also 
his faithful wife, who has been the mother of 
eight children, of whom seven survive, Orin be- 
ing the second one of the family. 

After his useful life in Summit county, the 
subject of this sketch, at the age of twenty 
years, engaged in farming for himself, then 
coming to Idaho, in 1884, and locating in Bing- 
ham county, where he took up a homestead of 
160 acres, eight miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 
which he has greatly improved, as he did also 
another 160 acres, which he later added to his 
possessions but has since sold, and he is now 
devoting his entire energies to the first quar- 
ter-section he took up, and is engaged in its suc- 
cessful culture, having made many improve- 
ments and developed a fine home, horticulture 
being an especial feature, he now possessing an 
orchard of 600 thrifty trees, while he is run- 
ning large numbers of horses, cattle and sheep. 

A truly representative man, his interest in 
public affairs has been marked. In political 
faith he is in affiliation with the principles and 
policies of the Republican party, ably discharg- 
ing the official duties connected with the posi- 
tions of school trustee and road supervisor, of 



which latter office he was the incumbent for six 
years, also being a popular postmaster at Le- 
orin. He is connected with the Eagle Rock 
and Willow Creek Irrigation Companies and 
also with the Harrison Irrigation Canal Co., of 
which he was the contractor. 

On December 25, 1882. Miss Martha J. 
White, a native of Summit county. Utah, and 
a daughter of William M. and Martha (Grey) 
White, became the wife of Mr. Lee. Her par- 
ents are still living at the paternal homestead 
where she was born. The surviving children 
of Mr. and Mrs. Lee are : Zella M., Martha L., 
Orin W., Henry. Stanly and Pern' A. The 
following, Mary Myrtle, Marcus W. and Bes- 
sie Fern are deceased and lie buried in Willow 
Creek cemetery. 

CHRISTIAN ANDERSON. 

That religious organization which is popu- 
larly known as the Mormon church, has ever 
retained in her far-reaching service and mani- 
fold works for the uplifting of humanity, the 
consecrated efforts of most zealous and self- 
abnegating devotees. No obtacles. no dan- 
gers have been sufficient to deter her emis- 
saries from carrying the gospel of their faith 
to the utmost corners of the earth, and none 
have been so benighted as to be denied her 
succor and protective care. The faulty, sin- 
ning and distressed have not been refused her 
kindly ministrations in any condition, and her 
noble missionaries have wrought must earn- 
estly as prime factors in its progress, and 
naught but reverence and honor should be 
accorded to them. 

Christian Anderson, now a prosperous 
merchant and stockman of Amnion ward, in 
Bingham county, Idaho, is also the local 
bishop of the Church of Latter Day Saints at 
that place. He was born on December 11, 
1863, at Mantna, Utah, being a son of Thomas 




CHRISTIAN ANDERSON. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



281 



and Sidse Anderson, natives of Denmark, 
where his father was a shipbuilder, but who, 
in deference to the demands of his religious 
faith, came to the United States in 1849, mak- 
ing the perilous journey across the plains to 
Utah with ox teams, where they located at 
Salt Lake City, later removing to Montana, 
where the father still resides, eng-aged in farm- 
ing operations and serving his church as a 
high priest. His marriage occurred in Utah 
in 1862, and from this union there came four 
children : Christian, Charles, Helena and 
Joseph. 

Bishop Anderson passed his youthful days 
in Utah, being intelligent, alert and possessed 
of a vigorous constitution. At the age of fifteen 
years he commenced his personal operations 
in the raising of sheep, they becoming later 
of scope and importance. In 1895 he removed 
to Bingham county, Idaho, where was a 
larger field for this industry and from that 
time to the present he has continued in this 
pursuit. Being a man having a broad "range 
of thought and a signal business ability, he 
has given attention to other and widely di- 
versified branches of commercial activities, 
developing a finely improved ranch, being a 
director and manager of the Ammon Mercan- 
tile Co., which displays a finely selected stock 
of general merchandise at Ammon, and for a 
definite time was the president of the Eagle 
Rock and Willow Creek Irrigation Canal Co., 
now the Farmers' Progress Canal Co. 

On August 15, 1888, Bishop Anderson 
took to wife Miss Anne Peterson, a native of 
Utah, and a daughter of Peter F. and Chris- 
tiana A. Peterson, natives of Denmark and 
early pioneers of Utah. They have had six 
children: Zenobia, Almira, Reuben, Orial, 
Delores and Irene. Bishop Anderson has 
ably demonstrated his capacity for dealing 
with temporal matters of "large pith and mo- 
ment," and stands in the front rank of the 



leading citizens of the county of his adoption, 
discharging the functions of his spiritual 
office with acknowledged ability and to the 
satisfaction of his superiors. As one of the 
strong factors of this section of the state it 
is but fitting that he be accorded this tribute 
in this volume. 

ALEXANDER KINGHORN. 

Perhaps no other civilized country of the 
world has so impressed its national character- 
istics upon its people as has the stern and rug- 
ged land of Scotland. Its emigrating sons and 
daughters, even after years of absence and of 
residence in other countries and among other 
peoples, still possess the marked energy, indus- 
try, perseverance, reliability and unconquerable 
determination to succeed that were so salient 
characteristics of their Scottish ancestors, and 
these sterling qualities are the foundation of 
Mr. Kinghorn's success in life and they have 
caused him to be reckoned among the represent- 
ative citizens of Fremont county, Idaho. Alex- 
ander Kinghorn was born at Green Ridge, 
Scotland, on January 27, 1839, a son of George 
and Elizabeth (Watson) Kinghorn, the father 
being a practical coal miner, who emigrated 
with his family to the United States, arriving 
at St. Louis, Mo., on February 15, 1853, and 
locating seven miles from that city, where he 
died of cholera, in 1856, at sixty-four years of 
age, the mother only surviving his death four 
years, dying at the age of sixty-five. 

Mr. Kinghorn was but seventeen years of 
age when thus left an orphan, but having 
learned mining under the practical instruction 
of his father, he was for years identified with 
the mining operations of Belleville, 111., there- 
after, as he had espoused the Mormon religion 
in 1852, he accompanied an ox team train to 
Salt Lake City, where he engaged in work in a 
sawmill, continuing thus employed for four 



282 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



years, then becoming the first engineer on the 
Utah Southern Railroad, remaining in this ca- 
pacity for sixteen years, during which time 
lie never had an accident, most of his work be- 
ing on passenger trains. An interesting family 
of children was meanwhile growing in his 
home, and to provide a place where all could 
have an opportunity of unfettered development, 
in 1884 the family removed to Lewisville. and 
the father and sons laid homestead claims on 
a full section of government land, and at once 
commenced its development and the diversified 
farming, which, under their wise and discrim- 
inating efforts, has greatly increased. They 
brought some stock with them, but, as the pros- 
pect did not promise remunerative prices, they 
sold it. 

They all assisted in the building of the 
Great Feeder and Mr. Kinghorn is a large 
shareholder in and the president of the Parks 
and Lewisville Canal Co. Prosperity has from 
the first attended Mr. Kinghorn's laudable en- 
deavors, and he stands today prominent in the 
activities of the county, viewing national mat- 
ters from the standpoint of the Democratic 
party, but acting independently in all local af- 
fairs of a public nature, holding high place in 
the esteem of the people, as a thoughtful, con- 
servative and eminently practical man of high 
personal character, and a consistent member of 
the Mormon church, in which for over fiftv 
years from 1865 he honorably filled the office 
of elder, then being ordained as one of the Sev- 
enties, while in 1902 he was set apart to his 
present office of high priest. 

On February 17, i860, at Belleville, 111., 
were wedded Mr. Kinghorn and Miss Jane 
Campbell, born in Scotland on December 15, 
1843. a daughter of David and Jane (Izatt) 
Campbell, the father having his birth on Sep- 
tember 10, 1819, and the mother on January 
9th of the same year. Coming to St. Louis in 
1855, the family followed the travels of the 



Kinghorns closely until they arrived in Utah, 
where the father, who was brought Up as a 
miner, engaged in various occupations, until his. 
death at sixty-seven years, in 1877. having sur- 
vived the mother four years, her death taking 
place at sixty-four years of age. 

The oldest two of the thirteen children of 
Mr. Kinghorn's family were born in Belleville. 
111., the youngest two at Lewisville. Idaho, the 
others at Salt Lake City, UJtah. The names 
and dates of birth are as follows : George. 1 De- 
cember 13, i860; David. May 6. 1862; James, 
October 30, 1864; William. February 7. 1867; 
Alexander, March 22, 1869; John, July 30, 
1871 ; Joseph. August 8. 1873 : Jane. December 
5. 1875; Elizabeth, March 25. 1878: Margaret. 
October 25, 1880; Belle, June 9. 1883; Emma, 
November 6. 1895; Agnes, September 1 r. 
1899. The family are a component part of the 
society of their section of the county, and are 
held in high regard in social, civil and eccles- 
iastical circles, while the parental home is an 
exemplification of true and bounteous hospi- 
talitv. 

JULIUS KREMER. 

Clearly defined purpose and consecutive 
effort in the affairs of life will bring a fair 
measure of prosperity if not great success, 
and in following the career of one who has 
attained success in any capacity as the repre- 
sentative of men of force and energy who take 
strong hold on the rugged conditions of life 
and mould them into successful and useful 
careers, Julius Kremer. of Eagle Rock. Bing- 
ham county, is surely entitled to mention in 
this connection as one who represents an im- 
portant element in the business prosperity of 
the place. He was born in Elmshorn. Hol- 
stein, Kreis Pinnoberg, Germany, on Decem- 
ber 4, 1845. °'f a ' on 8' nne "f German ances- 
tors, his parents being Jacob and Catharine 
Kremer. His father, who was born in [806, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



283 



becoming a prominent shipbuilder and died 
in 1849 at his native place of Elmshorn. The 
grandfather, Dick Kremer, was also a ship 
builder, while the mother of the subject of 
this review, who was born in 1810, survived 
her husband, dying in 1868, leaving seven 
children, of whom Julius was the youngest. 

After an excellent education in the gym- 
nasium of his native place, Julius Kremer also 
acquired a thorough technical knowledge of 
finance and business and thoroughly qualified 
himself in all departments of the brewing 
business, so that he was pronounced a master 
of his profession. Thus equipped and re- 
inforced for successful business and financial 
operations, Mr. Kremer emigrated from his 
native land, coming" at once to Salt Lake City, 
Utah, arriving on April 23, 1872, and for the 
long- period of twenty years he was success- 
fully engaged in operating and managing a 
large brewery. From Salt Lake City he went 
to Logan where he instituted another plant 
and conducted it for six years. 

Idaho Falls was his next field of operations 
and here, in association with Hyrum Ed- 
wards, he has from his advent in the place 
prosperously conducted a steadily increasing- 
brewing business, being one of the important 
factors of the business element of the town. 
His business and domestic affairs however, 
fill the measure of his ambitions, and to these 
he gives his diligent and undivided attention, 
finding time however for sufficient intercourse 
with his numerous friends. His business 
record is one highly honorable to him and his 
success has been deserved by his industry, as 
is also the high position, he holds in the con- 
fidence and esteem of the general public. 

On July 12, 1883, Miss Louise Engler, a 
native of Germany and a daughter of Adam 
and Katherine Engler, became the wife of 
Mr. Kremer. Their family consists of one 
child, William, who is now eighteen years of 



age, and who is a thorough musician and filling 
the position of bugler in the sergeant rank of 
the state militia. 

JOHN and WILLIAM J. KUNZ. 

Switzerland has made many notable gifts 
of her intelligent sons, skilled in technical 
knowledge of value, to the building up of the 
grand civilization which has commenced in even 
the wildest parts of the Rocky Mountain sec- 
tion of the Great West, and to the yet undevel- 
oped portions of Idaho. To Bingham county 
she has sent John and William J. Kunz, the 
subjects of this review, skilled dairymen and 
practical cheese and butter manufacturers, who 
are located on Lane's Creek, less than three 
miles east of Williamsburg, their present post- 
office address, to perform an excellent part in 
the work of assisting in the development of the 
dairy department of the great cattle industry, 
which has already attained a high degree of im- 
portance in this section of Idaho. 

William J. Kunz descends from a long line 
of people who for many generations have been 
noted for their adherence to cheese and butter- 
making in Switzerland, and was born in Can- 
ton Bern, Switzerland, a son of John and 
Magdalena (Straubhaar) Kunz, on March 14, 
1865, the father, who was born in 1844, hav- 
ing- been thoroughly and scientifically educated, 
in the best methods of building, managing and 
conducting cheese and butter factories. In 
1873 he severed the ties binding him to his 
native land, coming to Bear Lake county, 
Idaho, where he engaged in dairying, also con- 
structing a factory and for thirty years contin- 
ued in this business, securing good financial re- 
sults and giving to his son, William J., not only 
the theoretical knowledge of the processes of 
manufacture, but also confiding to him the ex- 
perience gained in his long years of activity in 
this work. 



284 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



The Bear Lake factory was prosperously 
conducted until 1889, when owing to changed 
conditions, the factory was abandoned, and a 
new one constructed on Lane's Creek, retaining 
the ownership of the Bear Lake county property, 
however, and acquiring a valuable ranch at the 
new home. During his American residence the 
father has passed two years in mission work in 
Switzerland and Germany and one year in serv- 
ice at Logan temple. The father of John Kurtz, 
also John Kunz, emigrated from Switzerland 
to America in 1870, coming directly to Bear 
Lake county, Idaho, where was his permanent 
home until his death in 1890, at the age of 
sixty-seven years. He married Rosanna 
Knute, who attained more than the Psalmist's 
allowance of "three-score and ten" years, dying 
in 1894, the mother of ten children, both her- 
self and husband being consistent members of 
the Mormon church. 

John Kunz of this review married with Miss 
Magdalena Straubhaar, a daughter of Peter 
and Johanna (Eggen) Straubhaar, farmers of 
Switzerland, where Peter passed his entire life. 
His widow came to the United States in 1873 
and the remaining years of her life were passed 
in the Bear Lake Valley, where she died at an 
advanced age. Mrs. Magdalena Kunz was the 
mother of five children, of whom William J. 
was the eldest, and her death occurred in 1874. 
at the age of thirty-seven years. 

William J. Kunz accompanied his father's 
family on the long journey from Bern, Swit- 
zerland, to Bear Lake county, Idaho, when he 
was eight years of age, and remained with the 
paternal household until he was twenty-three 
years of age, under the competent instruction 
and tutelage of his father, acquiring skill in the 
making of all dairy products, thereafter mar- 
rying and locating near Ovid, in 1892 mov- 
ing the family home to Lane's Creek, in Bing- 
ham county, and establishing the dairy and 
cheesemaking business as before stated. He 



is a keen, energetic and capable man of affairs, 
heartily in accord with the Republican party, 
by whose vote he was elected constable during 
his residence at Ovid, being the first person to 
hold that office in that precinct, while in the 
Mormon church he holds the office of elder. 

Both father and son are highly prized citi- 
zens, from their active usefulness, industry and 
moral integrity acquiring and retaining the uni- 
versal esteem of the community. William J. 
Kunz and Miss Anna Schmid were married on 
May 5, 1887, she being a native of Switzerland 
and coming to America three years before her 
parents, Carl and Anna Landert, in 1888, they 
locating first at Paris and ultimately on Slug 
Creek in Bannock county, this state, where they 
are engaged in ranching. Mr. W. I. and Mrs. 
Anna S. Kunz have a family of seven children : 
Benjamin W., Mabel M., Sylvia M.. Sophia 
O.. Anna E., Myrtle and Willard R. 

JOHN LARSEN. 

John Larsen, of Preston, Oneida county, 
in this state, is a native of Denmark, where 
he was born on May 1. 1845. His parents 
were Andrus and Mary (Nessen) Larsen, also 
natives of Denmark. In the fall of 1861, 
when he was in his sixteenth year, they 
brought their family to the United States and 
took up their residence in Utah. They crossed 
the plains to Salt Lake City, and from there 
they soon after removed to Logan, which at 
that time was a village in its infancy, pictur- 
esque with all the ruggedness of pioneer life. 
They were pioneers in that portion of the 
state, and in this now prosperous and highly 
improved educational center, which was 
started in 1859 and was but three years old 
when they came to it, they secured land and 
built a house. But soon afterward the father 
took up land near the town and began a farm- 
ins: industry which he conducted there until 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



28= 



his death in the autumn of 1865. His widow 
survived him thirty-six years, dying on Oc- 
tober 2, 1901, and being buried by his side 
at Logan. 

Their son, John Larsen, of this writing, 
began his education under difficulties in his 
native land and finished it with equal if not 
greater difficulty in this country, the crude 
and undeveloped school facilities on the fron- 
tier where the family were living affording 
slight aid to the student. He assisted in the 
work of clearing" and cultivating the farm 
while his father lived, after the death of that 
estimable man beginning farming for himself, 
taking up land for this purpose near Logan. 
He also- engaged in stockraising and by dili- 
gence and frugality added to his acreage and 
his stock until he became one of the leading 
ranchers and stockmen of that section. He 
also had a fine residence at Logan, where he 
made his home, and by an active and wise 
participation in public affairs, and the ex- 
hibition of a helpful and judicious interest in 
the welfare of the community, he became one 
of the leading men of the county, a director 
of public opinion and a stimulus and an in- 
spiration to others. In April, 1877, he went 
on a mission to Minnesota where he remained 
nine months zealously working in the interest 
of the Mormon church, to which he had be- 
come attached in his native land on April 14, 
1861. 

In 1884, much to the regret of the Logan 
people, Mr. Larsen moved to Preston, Idaho, 
still, however, retaining his land and other 
property in Utah. This he has since gradu- 
ally sold and now has all his financial inter- 
ests in Idaho, and he has become thoroughly 
identified with the aspirations of her people 
and the promotion of her welfare. On his ar- 
rival here he bought a farm one mile north 
of Preston, on which he settled and started 
a new industrv in farmins; and the raisins: of 



stock. From time to time he acquired addi- 
tional land and he now owns 900 acres, half 
of which is under irrigation and all is excel- 
lent fanning land. 

Mr. Larsen was the enterprising stock- 
man who introduced thoroughbred Durham 
cattle into this county, and the one also who 
started an improvement in the breed of horses, 
thereby raising the standard of its stock, by 
this not only advancing his own interests but 
those of the whole community in this respect. 
He continued ranching until the fall of 1899 
when he bought the town residence of M. F. 
Cowley at Preston for a home, leaving the 
management of his ranch to others. This 
residence is one of the most imposing in the 
county. It is built of undressed stone 'and 
finished in the highest style of the builder's 
art. Until March, 1901, he owned about one- 
third of the stock of the merchandising house 
of W. C. Parkinson & Co., of Preston. He 
then bought out the other stockholders and 
changed the firm name to John Larsen & 
Sons, whose store is now one of the leading 
ones of its kind in this part of the state. 
To the farming and ranch interests of the 
county he has been very serviceable. He was 
one of the promoters and is now one of the 
principal stockholders of the Preston, River- 
dale & Mink Creek Canal, in which he has a 
large amount of capital invested. The canal 
carries forty-two cubic feet of water per sec- 
ond and is twenty-two 1 miles long, being of 
inestimable benefit to the farmers of the re- 
gion through which it passes. 

• Mr. Larsen is a true farmer. He un- 
derstands thoroughly the great principles un- 
derlying the basic elements of the science of 
agriculture and his crops bear evidence thereof 
to the fullest extent. He has raised forty-five 
bushels of wheat to the acre on irrigated land 
and twenty-five bushels in dry farming. Mr. 
Larsen was one of the number who has laid 



286 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



all of this section of the country under obli- 
gation to him for his great interest in improv- 
ing the breeds of horses and cattle. In the 
early 'nineties he purchased one of the Cache 
Valley imported Norman-Percheron stallions, 
brought into the valley by John Good, for 
which he paid Si. 400, and he also introduced 
thoroughbred Durham cattle, the result be- 
ing that from that time to the present the 
character and quality of the cattle and horses 
of the county have steadily improved, the 
valuable example of Air. Larsen and com- 
panions being soon followed by many others. 

Mr. Larsen has always taken the same 
active interest in public affairs since coming 
here that he manifested at Logan, and is gen- 
erally recognized as one of the most influential 
men in the community. He has also con- 
tinued his abiding and serviceable zeal in be- 
half of the church. On January 13. 1884. he 
was ordained a high priest at Logan, and on 
July 27th of the same year he was called as first 
counsellor to Bishop W. C. Parkinson of the 
Preston ward, and succeeded to the bishopric 
of the ward when Bishop Parkinson was ap- 
pointed president of the Pocatello stake, be- 
ing thus ordained on October 2, 1898. He 
bad served as first counsellor for fourteen 
years, and was therefore well qualified for the 
new post, having full and accurate knowledge 
of the affairs of the ward, although it em- 
braced all the territory now included in four 
wards. In February, 1902, when the division 
occurred, he resigned his office as bishop, but 
has continued to be actively interested in the 
church in all phases of its work. 

On November 25, 1866. at Salt Lake 
City, Mr. Larsen was married to Miss Annie 
Jenson, a native of Sweden. They have had 
ten children, six of whom are living, John A., 
Nephi A., Willard, James A., Marinda and 
Blanche. Those deceased are Alar}- Ann. 
Charlie and Louisa (twins), and G. Lee. all 



of whom are buried at Logan. John is en- 
gaged in farming near Preston. He was sent 
'in a mission to Sweden in 1894, and <>n his 
return in 1895 was married to Miss Maria 
Allen. Nephi was married in December. 
1898, to Miss Bertha Parkinson, and in 1899 
he was sent on a mission to England where 
he remained two years. On his return in 1901 
he went into business with his father at Pres- 
ton. Willard went on a mission to Oregon in 
1898. and when he returned, in the spring of 
1901. he also became a member of the firm of 
Larsen & Sons, marrying, on March 4. 1903. 
with Annabel Cowley. James Alma was sent 
on a mission to Boise in November. 1903, on 
which he is at present engaged. Of the son-; it 
is high praise but a just meed to merit to say 
that the}' are exemplars of the amenities. 
thrift, progressiveness and public spirit which 
their father has shown in marked degree, and 
are worthy followers of his commendable ex- 
ample. 

JOSEPH LEWIS. 

Few men of all the region called the inter- 
mountain section of the Great West have wit- 
nessed more varying changes of life, experi- 
enced more thrilling experiences, or have been 
connected with so many varieties of existence, 
than the gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this article. Joseph Lewis was born in 
Bristol. England, on July 6, 1847. a son °f J°~ 
seph and Eliza (Heath) Lewis, his maternal 
grandfather being in the British naval service 
and serving as a mariner under Admiral Nelson 
at the world-renowned battles of the Nile and 
Trafalgar Bay and also under the Duke of 
Wellington at Waterloo; a maternal uncle. Wil- 
liam Heath, was on service first in Ireland, 
and later in India as a member of the British 
army. The father of our subject was a skilled 
shoemaker in his native land. but. joining the 
Church of Tesus Christ of Latter Dav Saints, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



287 



he came to America, and was a member of the 
first handcart company crossing the plains, in 
1856, his son, Joseph, then but nine years of 
age, assisting him in pulling his handcart from 
Iowa City to Florence, Neb. On account of 
sickness the family remained at Council Bluffs, 
continuing their western journey later to Utah, 
the father taking up his residence in Salt Lake 
City in 1861, and coming to Paris, Idaho, with 
his family, as one of the pioneer settlers of the 
county, in 1863, thereafter engaging in farm- 
ing and stockraising, his death occurring on 
March 20, 1900. 

Joseph Lewis of this review was but four- 
teen years of age when the tocsin of war sound- 
ed through the land and the President called 
for loyal defenders of the Union cause. Filled 
with a desire to serve his adopted country, in 
July, 1 86 1, young Lewis relinquished his 
studies at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and accompan- 
ied the Second Iowa Battery of Light Artil- 
lery to the front and was identified thereafter 
with its eventful history, enlisting as soon as he 
was of sufficient age as a soldier in its ranks, 
on March 26, 1864, and following the fortunes 
of that organization on many a hard-fought 
field of battle, serving under Generals McAr- 
thur, Canby and A. J. Smith, and participating 
in the battles and many other engagements 
sharply contested, and two of historic impor- 
tance, Tupelo, Miss., and Nashville, Tenn. Be- 
fore he enlisted in the battery Mr. Lewis was 
engaged with the company to which he had at- 
tached himself at the capture of New Madrid 
and Island No. 10, and also in two skirmishes, 
one on Maj' 9, 1862, the other on May 28, 
1862, both being near Farmington, Miss. He 
w T as also active in the operations connected with 
the siege of Corinth, the battle of Iuka and the 
second battle of Corinth, being then under the 
command of Gen. W. S. Rosecrans. After 
the retreat of the Confederate generals Price 
and Van Doran. whom the Federals followed 



to Ripley, Miss., Mr. Lewis accompanied the 
expedition under General Grant's command, 
when he first attempted to invest Vicksburg 
and had his supplies burned at Holly Springs, 
Mr. Lewis going as far south as Oxford, Miss. 
He then returned to Corinth and stopped with 
Gen. Granville M. Dodge at his headquarters, 
being" then engaged in selling newspapers to the 
soldiers, the battery having gone into winter 
quarters at Germantown, Tenn., on the line of 
the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. 

The battery was engaged in the siege of 
Vicksburg, losing heavily in the assault on the 
works on May 23, 1863. During the attack the 
grins were pulled by hand to the front by an 
Illinois regiment in order to cover, the storm- 
ing party. They were also in the battle of 
Jackson, Miss., attached to Gen. F. P. Blair's 
division of the Fifteenth Army Corps under 
Gen. W. T. Sherman, commanding" officer. Mr. 
Lewis was not with the battery in these en- 
gagements. The next summer, that of 1863, 
Mr. Lewis carried newspapers for a dealer 
named Hobbs from Memphis to Vicksburg, on 
steamers running between these cities after the 
fall of Vicksburg, also selling papers to Gen. 
Sherman's army encamped along the Big 
Blake River in the rear of Vicksburg. Here 
he again joined the battery, which he accom- 
panied to Canton, Miss., with supplies for Sher- 
man's army, then on its return from Meriden, 
Miss., being at that time under command of 
Gen. Tuttle, of Iowa. He was with the battery 
near Memphis, Tenn., in 1864, and in the com- 
mand that, in that year, went to the relief of 
Gen. Sturgis after his defeat by the Confeder- 
ate general, Forrest, whom Mr. Lewis's com- 
mand afterward met and defeated near Tupelo 
after two days of hard fighting. In this en- 
gagement Mr. Lewis cut fuse and carried am- 
munition from the limber chest to the guns. 

Throughout the entire war this battery 
never lost a gun, but wore out an entire set, 



288 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



drawing new ones. It was one of the marked 
organizations of the service,' belonging to the 
famous Second Brigade, at one time command- 
ed by Joseph A. Mower, afterwards a corps 
commander. The battery was first under com- 
mand of Captain Spoor, who resigned and was 
succeeded by First Lieutenant J. R. Reed, now 
a judge of the United States court of claims. 
This brigade was originally composed of the fa- 
mous Eighth Wisconsin, which carried the old 
War Eagle, "Old Abe," through the war, the 
Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh Illinois, the 
Eleventh Missouri, and the Fifth -Minnesota. 
The Twenty-sixth Illinois was later segregated, 
its place being filled by a Minnesota regiment. 
After a service of constant activity, on August 
7, 1865, Mr. Lewis was honorably mustered 
out of the service at Davenport, Iowa. 

Engaged in teaming operations from 
Omaha to Denver in the fall of 1865, attending 
school during the winter of 1865, in 1866 Mr. 
Lewis crossed the plains to Montana, taking the 
Bozeman cutoff, and was connected with min- 
ing operations in that territory until 1867, when 
be went to Salmon River, soon going to the 
Big Hole Basin and from there to Philipsburg, 
Mont., where he was employed in the quartz 
mill of the St. Louis and Montana Co., there- 
after for three years giving his attention to the 
development of his mining claim on Henderson 
Creek, Mont., after which time he returned to 
Council Bluffs. His next occupation was in 
the employ of a contractor on the B. & M. 
Railroad between Fort Kearney and Platts- 
mouth, Neb., constructing depots and other 
buildings, continuing to be thus employed until 
1874, prosperity attending his endeavors, and 
for eight months thereafter the Omaha Trans- 
fer Co. secured his services. 

Coming to Bear Lake county in 1874. he 
located on the site of his present ranch, engag- 
ing in the raising of stock and in the develop- 
ment of his estate, which now consists of 202 



acres under a fine state of improvement, his 
earnest and persevering endeavors developing 
an attractive and a fertile farm, with a substan- 
tial and commodious residence, barns, sheds 
corrals and all the necessary accessories for the 
pursuit of his branches of husbandry. 

Ever taking an intelligent and advanced po- 
sition in all matters tending to the benefit and 
improvement of the community, from the first 
he was a leader in irrigation and canal move- 
ments, and is now a large stockholder in the 
Pegleg Island Canal Co. His capability for the 
successful discharge of the duties connected 
with public office early met due recognition, and 
he has creditably served several terms as a jus- 
tice of the peace, also in numerous minor of- 
fices, while his services were called for as a 
postmaster of Dingle, which he held for over 
four years, his administration of that office, like 
that of all others he has held, demonstrating his 
complete fitness for the place. He has ever ta- 
ken great interest in educational matters, was 
one of the pioneer educators of Bear Lake 
county, being a popular and efficient teacher of 
the Paris schools in 1875. 

On March 4, 1875. was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Lewis and Miss Mary Nate, a 
daughter of Samson and Mary (Cottrell) Nate, 
and for ancestral history and other data of the 
family the reader is referred to the sketch of 
Mr. Nate appearing on other pages of this 
work. The family of Mr. Lewis embraces 
seven children, whose names and births we here 
record: Amelia, born February 2j. 1876: 
Mary E., born October 20, 1877; Lillian G., 
born October 31, 1879; Joseph B., born July 
7. 1881 ; Sarah E., born November 3. 1883; 
Thomas G.. born November 5, 1886; Lucy 
B., born February 19, 1889. 

Mr. Lewis is one of the most active, perse- 
vering and progressive citizens of his section 
of the state. He is possessed of broad views, 
a genial disposition, an integrity of thought and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



289 



purpose, an industry and grasp of financial prin- 
ciples that have brought him a competence of 
material prosperity, and his home is noted as 
one of the good old places where Western hos- 
pitality is a part of the every-day life. 

PHILEMON LINDSAY.. 

Bear Lake county, Idaho, has possessed 
many prominent citizens, but in all of their 
number there cannot be found one who^ has 
been more truly representative or more widely 
and actively awake to the interests of the com- 
munity in either a temporal or a spiritual way 
than Philemon Lindsay, whose long years of 
beneficent service in the welfare of the peo- 
ple fully entitle him to a representation in 
any compilation treating of the prominent 
or progressive sons of this commonwealth. He 
was born at Kaysville, Utah, on August 23, 
1857, a son of William B. and Parmelia 
(Blackmail) Lindsay, who, natives of Canada, 
emigrated thence to Utah in 1848, thereafter 
engaging in farming and stockraising, and, 
to increase the field of their operations, com- 
ing in 1867 to the new town of Paris, Bear 
Lake county, Idaho, the father there being 
prominent in church as well as in civil affairs 
until the time of his death, in January, 1887, 
his capable and efficient wife, the mother of 
the subject of this review, surviving him, an 
honored pioneer, until the last sad summons 
called her from earth on August 15, 1899. 

■ Passing his school days at Paris, Mr. 
Lindsay early began to wrestle with the ac- 
tivities of life, but remained at home until he 
was twenty-two years of age, when he was 
employed in the Temple sawmill at Logan 
Canyon, Utah, and, manifesting decided me- 
chanical ability, he was soon made head-saw- 
yer, not long afterward becoming foreman of 
the camp, holding this position for nine years 
to the great advantage of the business. Fol- 

16- 



lowing this service he was called to fill a mis- 
sion in the Southern states of the Union and 
was consecrated an elder of the church before 
his departure. Two : years of profitable mis- 
sion labor was succeeded by his leadership of 
a company of Mormon emigrants to the 
San Luis Valley of Colorado, after the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of the settlement com- 
ing to Idaho, where he resumed secular oc- 
cupations by taking his former position in a 
sawmill and continuing to be thus employed 
until 1888, when his church had again need 
of his services, calling him to Ovid, in Bear 
Lake county, to preside over the destinies of 
the settlement as the bishop of the ward, of 
which important office he is still the incum- 
bent. 

In temporal affairs the practical common 
sense, continuous industry and business ability 
of Mr. Lindsay have been well repaid. He 
is the owner of an eligibly located and finely 
improved ranch of 220 acres at Ovid, which 
responds to its culture with large annual 
crops of hay and grain, and is also one of the 
representative stockraisers of the valley, and 
he is accounted one of the solid financial men 
of his section and a public-spirited citizen of 
integrity and great official capacity. As a 
staunch member of the Republican political 
party, he was elected in 1895 and served as 
the coroner of his county, and in 1899 he re- 
ceived the nomination of his party for the 
office of county commissioner of the county, 
the nomination being ratified at the polls by 
a decidedly complimentary election, and his 
administration of the duties of that impor- 
tant position was so eminently satisfactory 
to the people that he was elected as his own 
successor, thus serving until 1902, in which 
year he was tendered a nomination as the 
member of the Legislature, but declined it. 

On September 29, 1881, the marriage of 
Mr. Lindsay and Miss Marintha Athay, a: 



290 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



daughter of James and Ellen (Norris) Athay, 
was celebrated. She was born on July 25. 
1861, in London, England, with her par- 
ents coming to Salt Lake City from England 
in 1863, and in 1864 they made their per- 
manent home in Bear Lake county, the mother 
dying on November 24, 1893, and the father 
now maintaining his residence in Paris, liv- 
ing a retired life. For further particulars we 
refer the reader to the memoir of Mr. Athay, 
appearing on other pages of this work. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay has come a fam- 
ily of ten children, namely: Marintha, born 
February 22, 1883; Philemon LeRoy, born 
June 25, 1885 ; Ellen L.. born January 6, 1889, 
died in infancy; Hazel, born May 22, 1890; 
James C, born May 7, 1892; Willard, born 
January 2j, 1895 ; Lyman, born December 1 1, 
1897; Beatrice, born August 11, 1899, died 
in infancy; Blanche, born November 5, 1900; 
William \Vallace, born August 7, 1903. The 
two oldest are diligent and proficient students 
of the Fielding Academy at Paris, and the 
social, domestic and religious life of the fam- 
ily places it high in the esteem of the entire 
community and a much broader range of 
cultured acquaintance and circle of friends. 

JOSEPH B. LLOYD. 

One who has closely followed the life and 
operations of Joseph B. Llovd, who is now 
one of the representative and prominent busi- 
ness factors in numerous lines of industrial 
activity in the Snake River Valley of Idaho, 
can easily perceive that the natural fitness he 
possesses to properly comprehend financial 
propositions, the time to buy. the time to sell 
and the time to hold for higher valuations is 
inbred and part of his original nature as well 
as those qualities of head and heart which 
render him a pleasing companion, an accom- 
modating neighbor and a most useful citizen. 



In preserving the records of the men who are 
the progressive men of his place and period 
the name of Joseph B. Lloyd must appear and 
not far down the roll. 

Mr. Lloyd was born at Farmington. Davis 
county, Utah, on November 28, 1858, the son 
of Thomas and Susannah (Stone) Lloyd, who 
emigrated from Woldhampton, England, in 
1S52, coming to the United States as a logical 
sequence to their devotion to the Church of 
Latter Day Saints, of which they were most 
consistent members, and crossing the wide, 
almost measureless, distance across the plains 
with ox teams in that early day, when danger, 
privation and suffering were the common li it 
of all who made the journey, arriving in safety 
at their home in the pioneer town of Farm- 
ington, where the father became an estimable 
citizen, combining his trade of saddle and 
harnessmaking with diversified fanning oper- 
ations, attaining a hale old age and dying on 
April 6. 1890. The mother showed her 
loyalty to church and husband by following 
him to Farmington, drawing a handcart over 
the wearying emigrant trail, and after a long 
life of practical usefulness, she is now living 
at Logan. Utah, having, on last Christinas 
day, attained seventy-three years of life. 

Mr. Lloyd passed the clays of his minority 
as did the other boys of the place and period, 
attending school, working at the different la- 
bors connected with the parental home and 
farm, and the raising of horses, and in these 
lines he has continued operations in Utah and 
Idaho until the present writing. He came to 
the Snake River Valley in 1884 and. by tim- 
ber claims and homesteading, became the 
owner of 640 acres of eligibly located land, 
his estate, however, being reduced by sale to 
300 acres. He immediately became active in 
local improvements, was interested in and 
aided in the construction of the first irrigation 
canals of the vallev, holding the office of water- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



291 



master in 1891 and 1892. From 1887 to 
1891 he held a half-interest in the pioneer 
livery and feed'stable of Rexburg, then clos- 
ing out his interest at a satisfactory profit. 
He has been the proprietor of a stage line from 
Rexburg to Market Lake, to the railroad, be- 
fore the branch road was built, and to the 
Yellowstone Park and other points of interest 
to tourists, becoming known as a capable and 
popular business man in this connection. A 
Republican in political affiliations, Mr. Lloyd 
has ever rendered true allegiance to his party 
and been vigorous in his work for its success, 
and he has been the efficient city marshal of 
Rexburg, the city pound-keeper and also a 
very competent road supervisor. For years 
he has been a member of the Mormon church, 
and in 1890 and 1891 he was occupied with 
successful mission work in Wisconsin and 
Minnesota and he is now a valued member of 
the high council of the church. 

It was on July 3, 1879, that the marriage 
of Mr. Lloyd and Miss Martha A. Gunnell 
was celebrated. She is a daughter of Francis 
C. and Elizabeth (Bickmore) Gunnell, and 
was born at Wellsville, Utah. Her father was 
a native of London, England, coming to 
America and to Utah as one of the early Mor- 
mon pioneers, becoming a general tithing- 
clerk and also carrying the mail for years be- 
tween Salt Lake City and the Cache Valley. 
He died in 1889 at Cache Valley, surviving 
the mother by ten years, her death occurring 
in 1877. We give a brief record of the chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd as a suitable 
close of this review: Joseph F., born July 27, 
1880; Parley T., born February 21, 1882, died 
May 16, 1883; Orson G., born January 8, 
1884; Martha E., born December 9, 1885; 
George Q., born November 28, 1887, died on 
May 15, 1891 ; Franklin, born May 2, 1890, 
died November 5, 1895; Sarah S., born April 
21, 1892; Earl G., born May 24, 1896; John 
N., born September 16, 1899. 



SAMUEL LOYD. 

A native of the Great West and identified 
from birth with its growth, development and 
prosperity and being now one of the prominent 
and influential citizens of Blackfoot, Bingham 
county, Idaho, where he is conducting agricul- 
ture and stockraising operations of scope and 
importance on his fertile and highly productive 
ranch of over 800 acres, Mr. Loyd is surely en- 
titled to a review of his life and accomplish- 
ments among the representative men of this 
section of the state. He was born on Augxist 
18, 1854, in Sonoma county, Calif., a son of 
James B. and Hyly T'arrasti Loyd, the father 
being a native of Virginia, where he was born 
in 1820, thence accompanying his parents in 
early years to Missouri, there remaining until 
1852. 

In the year just mentioned James B. Loyd 
became one of the pilgrims taking the long and 
wearisome journey across the plains and moun- 
tains of the Great West to the Pacific, travel- 
ing the long distance to Sonoma county, Calif., 
with ox teams, and there he resided as a 
farmer until 1869, when he returned to Mis- 
souri, where he is now maintaining his home 
near Holden in Johnson county, having arrived 
at the venerable age of over eighty years. A 
man of high character and religious attain- 
ments, he has been a valued member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church for over thirty 
years, while in political creed he has ever been 
a stanch Democrat. His estimable wife, who 
participated in his life's activities for so many 
years, passed away from earth in 1889. She 
was a native of the state of Missouri, born in 
1825. By her first husband, VanBuren Rob- 
bins, she had two children, while by her union 
with Mr. Loyd she was the mother of seven 
more. 

The early life of Mr. Samuel Loyd, the 
subject of this review, was passed in California, 
where he attended school and became acquainted 



292 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



with various forms of labor, from the age of 
eighteen years, however, devoting himself to 
agricultural pursuits, which he conducted suc- 
cessfully in California until he came to Idaho 
in 1889. Here he purchased his present ranch 
of 810 acres, and has since been engaged in ac- 
tive farming and stockraising operations, be- 
ing one of the representative ranchmen of this 
section of the state, enjoying the esteem of all 
his associates. Mr. Loyd's political connec- 
tions are with the Democratic party, with 
whose principles and policies he is decidedly in 
favor, and he is actively and energetically in- 
terested in all public matters of a local charac- 
ter, while fraternally he is connected with the 
Masonic fraternity, being affiliated with the 
lodge at Blackfoot. 

On November 7, 1881, Mr. Loyd married 
with Miss Ally Rowes, a native of California, 
and a daughter of John and Maggie (Ely) 
Rowes, natives of Ohio and Missouri, who mi- 
grated from Missouri to California in 1854, 
making the long and hazardous journey across 
the plains with ox teams, and settling in Butte 
county, California, the father there following 
farming until he came to Blackfoot at a later 
day, where he died and was buried and where 
Mrs. Rowes still maintains her residence. Mr. 
and Mrs. Loyd have two children : Jesse and 
Asa. 

ROBERT G. LOWE. 

Robert G. Lowe, of Franklin, Idaho, is a na- 
tive of that great hive of industry and mine of 
wealth, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 
Luzerne county on July 16, 1856. His par- 
ents were Thomas and Eliza G. (Galloway) 
Lowe, natives of Scotland, who, converted to 
the doctrines of the Mormon church in their 
native land, determined to emigrate to America 
and make their home among its people. They 
crossed the Atlantic in 1850 and first settled in 
Pennsvlvania, where they remained until the 



spring of 186 1. They then dared the dangers 
of another long- and trying journey, crossing 
the plains with ox teams toward Salt Lake City. 
When they reached Hoytsville, Utah, their 
oxen were exhausted and they were obliged to 
remain awhile for their recuperation. 

They stayed there a longer time, however, 
not leaving- until the spring of 1863. when they 
located in Franklin, then a settlement, embrac- 
ing only a few people who were living in the 
small, rude fort. It was not until the next sum- 
mer that the/inhabitants moved out on the sur- 
rounding country, and Mr. Lowe's father was 
the first settler to go far out. and he only went 
about one and one-half miles east of the fort. 
There he started a shingle mill, which did ex- 
cellent work, furnishing shingles for nearly all 
of the houses in the Upper Cache Valley for 
many years. It is still standing, a venerable 
landmark of the early days of toil and trial, be- 
ing still known as "the Lowe mill." 

When the Lowe family located at Franklin 
Robert was a child of seven years of age, and 
here he grew to manhood and secured what ed- 
ucation he could acquire under the circum- 
stances. The first task which necessarily en- 
gaged the energies and faculties of the pio- 
neers was the subduing of nature and making 
the land obedient to their will ; and, while they 
were heartily in favor of the education of the 
young and provided for it with a really gener- 
ous public spirit for their time and condition, 
education had to be secondary to the physical 
needs of the community, and its scope was lim- 
ited and its facilities primitive and crude. 

Robert Lowe worked with his father on 
the paternal farm until he was twenty-two 
years of age. then married ami started life for 
himself by purchasing a farm east of the town 
and giving his energies to its development and 
cultivation. In 1888 he opened a general mer- 
chandising and furniture establishment at 

Franklin, and, after conducting it successfullv, 

Hi*-. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



293 



he turned its g'oods into the Oneida Mercantile 
Union enterprise, taking stock in the new cor- 
poration for it and accepting a position with it 
as the manager of the furniture department. 
This position he held without interruption un- 
til 1897, when he was sent to Tennessee on a 
mission for the church, which occupied two 
years. On his return he resumed his duties at 
the store and has been continuously performing 
them since that time. 

The company has changed management, 
but Mr. Lowe remained in charge of his depart- 
ment through all of the changes and the differ- 
ing conditions. He is universally recognized 
as one of the leading- business men of the com- 
munity, and as one of its forceful and service- 
able citizens in social, civic and church life. 
He takes an active part in public affairs, but is 
not a strict adherent of any party, looking pri- 
marily to the good of the community, rather 
than to party success. His father made his 
home at Franklin until his death on March 17, 
1887, and his mother still resides there on the 
old homestead, having accomplished seventy- 
six years of useful existence and being the 
mother of sixteen children. Mr. Lowe has a 
fine brick residence in the eastern part of the 
town, which is a center of social pleasure and 
refined and generous hospitality. He also owns 
an excellent farm near the town, which is occu- 
pied and farmed by a tenant. 

On December 12, 1878, at Salt Lake City, 
Robert G. Lowe married with Miss Mary J. 
Doney, who was born in Nebraska while her 
parents were crossing the plains on their way 
to Salt Lake. They were John and Alnn 
(George) Doney, natives of England, and be- 
came Mormons before leaving their native land. 
Their weary journey from the Mississippi to 
Utah was made in one of the famous handcart 
trains, handcarts being used instead of "prairie 
schooners," and the motive power supplied by 
men and women instead of animals. 



Mr. and Mrs. Doney remained at Kaysville 
until the spring of i860, when they came with 
the first daring band of settlers to Franklin, 
and here they made their last home, the father 
dying in December, 1900, and the mother still 
being a venerated resident Of the town whose 
birth she witnessed, and whose progress she. 
has watched and aided with solicitude and in- 
creasing gratification. There are ten children 
in the Lowe household, named respectively 
Millie, Addie, Laura, Bertha, Robert, Rosella, 
Heber, Ethel, Lester and Letha. 

JAMES McMURRAY. 

The McMurray family of Pennsylvania, 
from whom the gentleman whose name heads 
this review is descended, traces its lineage to 
Scotch-Irish ancestors who bravely battled for 
liberty and the Protestant religion in the north 
of Ireland in the bloody civil wars that drove 
so mafty of that sturdy stock to take refuge in 
the New World, large numbers of them mak- 
ing their American homes in New Hampshire, 
Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where they 
have ever stood among the ablest and strongest 
citizenship. And it was in Pennsylvania where 
the emigrants of this branch of the McMurray 
race established themselves, becoming one of 
the most valued families of the county of their 
residence, and here James- McMurray was born 
in Cumberland county, on December 24, 1829, 
the son of John and Mary (Hutton) McMur- 
ray, who were also natives of the Keystone 
state. 

Reared upon the homestead farm under the 
efficient tutelage of his thrifty and pious par- 
ents, Mr. McMurray remained with his people 
after attaining his majority, with them loyally 
espousing the doctrines of the Mormon church, 
their zeal in the cause causing them to leave 
the home of years and cross the continent in 
1852 to Utah, that they might there have full 



294 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



and free liberty to enjoy the religion of their 
choice. The father was not long spared, as in 
1853 he was called by death to his heavenly 
home. Thereafter James remained with the 
family, conducting farming and stockraising 
at Grantsville, Utah, until the marked advan- 
tages of the Bear Lake region of Idaho attract- 
ed his attention, and, removing thither, he oc- 
cupied his present residence, then a wild and 
unproductive portion of land, which, by his 
skillful care and attention, has been most won- 
derfully changed into a highly improved and 
productive estate of 190 acres of valuable land, 
of which eighty acres annually produce large 
crops of hay, the remainder being devoted to 
profitable diversified farming operations, while 
a herd of about seventy cattle carries his brand. 

A quiet and unostentatious man, Mr. Mc- 
Murray has steadily pursued a life of peaceful 
industry and good works, rendering most ten- 
der filial care to his mother until her death, at 
Liberty, Idaho, in May. 1896, and standing 
high in the regards of a large circle of friends 
and admirers. Fortune has generously yielded 
to him in abundance in response to his well- 
directed efforts and his financial standing has 
been long a solid one. He has generously and 
liberally aided all matters of public improve- 
ment and private beneficence that appealed to 
his judgment as worthy, and he has largely 
contributed to the creation and support of the 
Pioneer Creamery Association, of Paris, and 
now holds a large block of its stock. In a quiet 
manner he has liberally aided the various pro- 
gressive movements and causes of his church, 
and very acceptably filled the office of counsel- 
lor to the Bishop of Liberty ward for a term 
of years and until he resigned the office. 

On September 10, 1886, Mr. McMurray 
and Miss Elizabeth Stevenson were united in 
marriage, she being a daughter of John and 
Mary (Bickers) Stevenson, natives of England, 
who came to Utah in 1862 as Mormon immi- 



grants, and, after living lives of great indus- 
try and piety, their death occurred in that state. 
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McMurray 
have come nine children, James S.. Charles, de- 
ceased, John S., Jesse. Mary, deceased, Han- 
nah M., Fanny, Bertha and George \J. In the 
family a most generous and old-time hospital- 
it} - is displayed, the many friends finding there 
a most cordial reception and entertainment. 

MORGAN H. LUXD. 

Morgan H. Lund, a Gentile in the midst 
of a strong Mormon population, has the dis- 
tinction of being universally popular even 
with the members of that energetic and 
aggressive church, and deserves his popu- 
larity, for he is as energetic as any of them 
and as sincerely devoted to the development 
and improvement of the region in which he 
has cast his lot, considering all matters in- 
volving these beneficent results with as much 
breadth of view and public spirit as any of 
his neighbors and fellow citizens of the com- 
munity. He was born in Denmark on June 
21, 1840, a son of Lars and Annie Marie 
Lund, also natives of that country. His 
father was a prosperous shoemaker in the 
Danish capital, passing the whole of his life 
there, as also did his wife. 

Their son, Morgan, was reared and edu- 
cated in his native land. and. after leaving 
school, turned his attention to farming there, 
engaging in matrimony and following his 
peaceful and independent occupation amid 
the scenes of his childhood until the spring of 
1876. Then he emigrated with his family to 
America, and, crossing the plains to Utah, 
settled at Richmond, reaching there in 
August. 1876. He bought land near the town 
and cultivated it for two years, being one of 
the first and one of the very few Gentile set- 
tlers in that neighborhood. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES,. IDAHO. 



2 95 



In 1S78 he came to Preston. Idaho, where 
a number of homeseekers were locating at the 
time, homesteading on his present ranch, two 
miles east of the town, where he has made 
his home ever since. He has been actively en- 
gaged in farming and stockraising on this 
land, and by his untiring energy and persever- 
ance, he has become one of the leading stock- 
men of this portion of the state. 

In 1902 he built a substantial and inviting 
residence on his place and otherwise improved 
it until it is one of the most pleasing and valu- 
able in the district, being convenient in the 
arrangement of its buildings, complete in its 
equipment for all its uses, and advanced in the 
state of its cultivation to the highest degree 
of modern husbandry. He has always taken 
an active and helpful part in public affairs and 
by this service, as well as by the useful quali- 
fications he has shown for it, he lias endeared 
himself to the community and won the lasting 
regard of all classes of its people. 

On November 18, 1866, Mr. Lund was 
united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Niel- 
son, a native of Denmark, in which count}' the 
marriage was solemnized. They had seven 
children, Matilda, wife of Ben Shipley, of 
American Fork, Utah ; Frederick, who died 
on June 24, 1889. aged seventeen years ; Sena, 
wife of John Nelson, who died on June 27, 
1895, aged twenty-two years, leaving two 
named infant ; Joseph, and Dagmar, who mar- 
ried Maggie Becker, and lives on the paternal 
farm ; Annie, wife of John N. Hopps, of Iona, 
Idaho, and has two children, Hans and an un- 
named infant; Joseph, and Dagmar, who mar- 
ried Frederick Jensen and lives at Preston. 

george Mcculloch. 

Among the energetic, industrious and 
progressive agriculturists of Fremont county, 
Idaho, where he is engaged in farming oper- 



ations in the near vicinity of the brisk and 
rapid growing city of Rexburg, Mr. George 
McCulloch is manifesting the ancestral 
traits of his Scotch ancestors, for his lineage 
traces away back to the dawn of civilization 
in the "land of the North," the clan McCul- 
och even then being prominent and aggressive 
in the civil wars of that place and period. Mr. 
McCulloch was born on August 4, 1857, at 
Paynston, Scotland, a son of Henry and Mary 
(Smith) McCulloch, the father being identified 
with coalmining operations in Scotland, com- 
ing with his family from that country to 
America in 1864, the same year crossing the 
plains to Utah, keeping monotonous march 
for months with the slow-stepping oxen that 
drew the white-topped emigrant wagons, lo- 
cating first at Salt Lake City and one year 
afterwards removing to Logan, where the 
father was connected with varying occupa- 
tions, finally entering the service of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway, and while at St. 
Paul, Minn., on business for the road, he was 
accidentally killed in 1883, the mother surviv- 
ing him until February 14, 1895, when she 
too passed from earth, having attained fifty- 
seven years of life. 

From his sixteenth year Mr. McCulloch 
has been engaged in sub-contracting in rail- 
road construction, and for the long period of 
thirty years he resided in Oneida county, 
Idaho, making his debut there in 1866. In 
1897 he came to Rexburg, purchased a .small 
farm and has since been engaged in farming. 
Mr. McCulloch is an intelligent observer of 
what is passing not only in local matters, but 
through the reading of well-selected literature 
and journals of the day becoming well ac- 
quainted with national and foreign affairs, 
and, having a calm, clear judgment to guide 
him, he is an earnest supporter of the Re- 
publican party, with whose principles and 
policies he is in complete harmony, and in 



296 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



neighborhood and community events he is 
ever found on the side of law. progress and or- 
der, being a popular citizen and a man who 
solidly holds his friends after they are won. 
On March 14. 1880. at Glendale, Mont., 
Mr. McCulloch and Miss Catharine Anderson, 
who was born on December 20, 1862, at 
Uland, were united in marriage, her parents, 
James P. and Margaret Anderson, coming 
from Denmark and locating at Hyrum. 
Utah, about 1864. and later residing at Lo- 
gan and at Weston, where the father is now 
living, the mother dying about 1869. Twelve 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Culloch, namely : Mary Catherine, born De- 
cember 23, 1 88 1 ; George William, born July 
5, 1883; Retta. born January 26, 1885; Eliza- 
beth, born May 5, 1886; Henry, born March 
26. 1887, accidentally shot and killed on Janu- 
ary 17. 1904; James, born July 26, 1889, de- 
ceased; Gladys, born December 27, 1890; 
Peter, born December 17. 1892; Nels Arnold. 
born September 10, 1895; Richard, born July 
26, 1897; Beatrice, born July 3. 1899; Ed- 
ward, born September 30, 1901. 

GEORGE W. GIFFORD. 

George W. Gifford, an up-to-date stock- 
grower and farmer of Bingham county, 
Idaho, has shown himself possessed of those 
valuable qualities which, given free exercise, 
will win success in any enterprise to which 
they may be devoted. He has chosen an 
agricultural life, but in addition to this he has 
engaged in merchandising, his activities not 
allowing him to confine his energies in any 
one sphere of action. Mr. Gifford is another 
example of what is being accomplished by 
the native sons of the West, for his birth oc- 
curred in Manti, Utah, and his education and 
thorough training were obtained in that state. 
A son of Henry D. and Almira A. 1 Braffett) 



Gifford, he was born on January 10, 1 S 5 7 . 
His parents were natives of Pennsylvania ami 
New York and early emigrants to Utah, 
where they were long prominently connected 
with its development, and in membership with 
the Church of Latter Day Saints. 

Mr. Gifford attained manhood in his na- 
tive state, participating in the labors and du- 
ties pertaining to life on the paternal home- 
stead until he had attained the age of twenty- 
two years, when he began his connection with 
the responsibilities and business affairs of life 
011 his own account. From 1888. the date of 
his coming to Bingham county, he has been 
an active factor and a leading spirit in many 
activities. Taking up a homestead of 160 
acres, he threw the whole force of his 
energetic nature to its special development 
and during his residence there he has attained 
magnificent results. 

Generous in his estimation of others, sin- 
cere in his devotion to principles, honest in 
his dealings, independent in thought, his is 
a type of citizenship which largely counts in 
the estimation of those elements which make 
for moral and civic progress. Among the 
useful positions held by him we would state 
that he is a school trustee of his school 
district, has been for six years justice of the 
peace, and president of the Woodville Irri- 
gation Canal Co., was clerk of the company 
for one year and is now one of the board of 
directors, while he has also attended to his 
duties as a merchant in the grocery store he 
has maintained at his residence. 

Mr. Gifford was married with Miss Louisa 
Hale, a native of Utah and a daughter of 
James and Lucy (Clements) Hale, and their 
surviving children are George A.. Henry E.. 
Helena, James A., Lester. Lucy E.. Moses 
and Milo. Two children are deceased, Lucy 
Ann and Efhe L. In politics Mr. Gifford 
gives his stanch support to the Socialist po- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



299 



litical party, doing much to advance its cause, 
while in the various relations of public, so- 
cial and religious life of the community he has 
labored indefatigably and has won many 
friends. 

ROBERT MACKIE. 

Perhaps no other country of Europe has 
sent as marked and valuable contributions to 
the building up and development of the Great 
West of the United States as Scotland, that 
bonnie land of the heather, hills and lakes. 
Her emigrant sons have proved to be most 
valuable factors in the formation of the 
civilization of the new West ; in every place 
and portion of this great Union they are found 
occupying responsible and often leading posi- 
tions in civil, commercial, professional and 
military circles of the community, thus adding 
to the good name and reputation of the sec- 
tions of the country that they have honored and 
dignified by making their residence. 

Mr. Robert Mackie, now an esteemed resi- 
dent of near Blackfoot, Bingham county, Idaho, 
is a sturdy representation of the Scotch charac- 
ter whose life, activities and successes are in 
complete harmony with the above statement. 
He was born on October 31, 1837, a descend- 
ant of families whose lineage runs back un- 
broken in Scotland through unnumbered gen- 
erations, being - a son of James and Elizabeth 
(Laird) Mackie, and the place of his birth 
having been near Glasgow, Scotland. His 
father, a native of Edinburgh, was long identi- 
fied with coalmining operations in Scotland, 
where he died in 1847, his widow thereafter 
emigrating to America and locating in Mary- 
land with her children and there residing until 
her death in 1856. 

Robert Mackie was sixteen years old when 
he came with his mother from Scotland to 
America and he was busily employed in various 
occupations until he went to California by way 



of the Isthmus of Panama in 1861. Sailing 
from, the port of Baltimore, on his journey to 
that city he passed Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 
immediately after the execution of the famous 
John Brown. Possessing marked musical 
tastes, which he had carefully developed during 
the three years of his residence in the moun- 
tains of California, Mr. Mackie turned his mu- 
sical skill into business practicality by playing 
the violin at numerous festive occasions, thus 
occupying profitably a considerable portion of 
his stay in that state. 

Returning to Maryland, he there remained 
for a time, thence removing to Minnesota, 
where he was engaged in agricultural opera- 
tions for ten years. He then emigrated to Park- 
City, Utah, and after three years' residence 
there, took up a ranch of 160 acres, a portion 
of his present estate near Blackfoot, Bingham 
county, Idaho, where he has since made his 
home and been prosperously engaged in stock- 
raising and its collateral branches of husbandry, 
from time to time adding to his land until he 
now has an estate of 320 acres of fine produc- 
tive ranch property, being also held high in the 
esteem of the public, and, from his extremely 
social nature, having an immensely large circle 
of friends, who are bound to him as by hooks 
of steel. 

A Republican in his political affiliations, he 
has capably served in public positions, among 
them being secretary of his school district and 
for several terms giving valuable service as a 
juror. Incidentally also in this connection we 
would mention that he has given effective serv- 
ice as the secretary of the East Branch Irri- 
gation Co. Amid his present prosperous busi- 
ness and financial surroundings, secure in the 
esteem of all his acquaintances, Mr. Mackie can 
surely have no regrets that he was induced to 
cast in his fortunes with this favored section 
of land. 

On July 2, 1858, soon after reaching his 



3°o 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



majority, Mr. Mackie was joined in matrimony 
with Miss Mary Connor, a native of Scotland, 
and a daughter of John and Mary (Brown) 
Connor, the former of whom was born on April 
21, 1821, and died on July 31, 1872, while the 
mother was born on August 2. 1822. and died 
on March 4. 1867, both father and mother be- 
ing natives of Scotland and descendants of old 
Scotch families. Mr. and Mrs. Mackie's chil- 
dren are James, born on August 5, 1859 ; Eliz- 
abeth G., now Mrs. L. M. Capps, of Blackfoot, 
born January 28, 1868; Agnes, born June 4, 
1870. died March 17, 1895. married a Mr. Cur- 
tiss, who is now deceased ; John, born July 30, 
1872; Robert, born May 22, 1875; Cora, born 
September 13, 1S77 ; Jennie, born July 28, 
1882; Christina, born February 16, 1880, died 
at the age of two and one-half years ; Mary, 
born April 8, 1885, and who died on June 16th 
of the same year. 

REV. W. J. A. HENORICKX. 

The work of the Roman Catholic church in 
the upbuilding of the Great West has from the 
very first been an all important and dominant 
factor in its redemption. Year after year the 
noble members of her priesthood have carried 
the cross and holy symbols, first to the untut- 
ored Indian, daring danger, suffering, torture 
and death to win souls for Christ, and their ar- 
dent zeal and patient fortitude succeeded in ac- 
complishing what millions of money expended 
in warlike movements could never have brought 
about, the christianization of unnumbered sav- 
ages. Among the frontier men, who have 
steadily and persistently crowded the red man 
from his old-time haunts, has the same good 
work been conducted, generation after gener- 
ation has been benefited in the hour of advers- 
ity, consoled in the time of sickness and blessed 
with the holy ordinances of the church in the 
departing hour of life. And unceasing, ag- 



gressive and without stop or stay is this mighty 
organization for good continuing its holy mis- 
sion. Its early missionaries, broken by their 
arduous labors, have passed away to a heavenly 
reward or have attained the feebleness of age. 
Following in their footsteps, however, and ani- 
mated by the same self-denying, self-abnegat- 
ing spirit, a multitude of devoted men of the 
church of a younger generation have taken their 
places in the ranks and are carrying forward 
the great work of ministering to and saving 
souls, maintaining the dignity and the power of 
the church in manifold places. 

One of this number, Father W. J. A. Hen- 
orickx. who is now in charge of the Catholic 
parish of Montpelier. Idaho, where he has been 
most usefully laboring for six productive years, 
was born in Tilburg. Holland, on August 13, 
1843, and in the Ruremonde University of 
Holland he was thoroughly educated during 
his fourteen years of diligent study in the lit- 
erary and theological courses, and, under the 
wise Christian training of its professors he was 
fully fitted to engage in clerical labors, being 
consecrated and ordained a priest at this uni- 
versity on March 28, 1868. Coming at once to 
America, his life has ever since been an active 
devotion to the cause of Christianity. Arriv- 
ing in New York city on July 14. 1868, he was 
appointed to the pastorate of the church at Cen- 
terline, Mich., and here he displayed such zeal, 
energy and executive power, that, in 1884. he 
was called to Detroit to form two new parishes, 
one among- the Hollanders there resident, the 
other among the Belgians. Here his diligent 
labors were signally blest in the establishment 
of strong parishes, and then his services were 
demanded in the Western field. 

Coming to Idaho in 1889. he gave continu- 
ous and highly productive service in the Boise 
Basin until 1897, building up the congregations, 
and improving and repairing the church edi- 
fices in Idaho City and Granite Creek, and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



301 



through his wise administration and executive 
ability securing the erection of new houses of 
worship in Garden Valley and at Emmett. In 
1897 he came to his present location in Mont- 
pelier. where, as in all his previous locations, 
his efforts have been blessed by the Lord, his 
affability and genuine kindness of heart win- 
ning him strong and lasting friends in all com- 
munities, irrespective of denominational or 
church lines. 

Father Henorickx as a public speaker is 
clear, cogent, forcible, powerful and eloquent. 
He reasons clearly and to the point, making 
deep thoughts so plain that even the unlettered 
think them but simple truths. His strong sen- 
timents are justice, benevolence and the con- 
trolling power of conscience. A good judge of 
human nature, he knows how to treat men; he 
can lay plans and think for others, can attend 
to a great variety of business at once, in short 
order and without confusion. On the platform 
he, presents an attractive personality combined 
with a magnetism that secures attention, and he 
has been for a long time a very popular lec- 
turer, delivering addresses on social and scien- 
tific subjects in all of the prominent towns along 
the Oregon Short Line Railroad, and in vari- 
ous places, his favorite themes being astronom- 
ical, the solar system, sun spots, the nebular 
system, etc. Speaking seven languages with 
unusual fluency, as a conversationalist the 
worthy father enjoys a high reputation. It is 
almost needless to add that his circle of friends 
contains all who have ever made his acquaint- 
ance. 

LOUIS MADISON. 

For the development of the Great Ameri- 
can Northwest every country of the globe has 
been laid under tribute, and even sturdy little 
Denmark has sent her quota. Among the val- 
ued and serviceable number which that kingdom 
has furnished is Louis Madison, who is a pros- 



perous farmer and stockraiser of Bingham 
county, Idaho, maintaining the importance and 
dignity of his native land, and by his demeanor, 
deportment and strict integrity, rendering him- 
self a useful citizen of his adopted country. 
Mr. Madison was born on October 30, 1859, 
in Denmark, a son of Nels and Marie (Gotts- 
chalk) Madison, his father being a lifelong 
farmer of Denmark, where he was born in 18 16 
and died at the age of sixty-six years and lies 
buried in Copenhagen. He was a son of Nels 
Madison, and a descendant of a long line of 
Danish ancestors. The mother, who was born 
in Denmark in 1822, became the mother of six 
children, and died at the age of seventy-seven 
years. 

Mr. Madison, after a thorough education 
in the government schools in Denmark until 
he was nineteen years of age, emigrated from 
his native land, making the long and wearisome 
journey across the Atlantic to America and con- 
tinuing westward until he reached Utah, where, 
locating at Bingham Canyon, he was identified 
with mining operations for a period of five 
years, when he removed to Bingham county, 
Idaho, in 1885, there locating upon 160 acres 
of government land, upon which he has since 
made his home, and, by his diligent industry 
and painstaking labors he has transformed it 
from a state of desolate appearance to a beauti- 
ful and attractive ranch, having paid attention, 
not only to these departments of industry of 
this section, farming and stockraising, but giv- 
ing especial attention to the raising and care 
of fruit trees, in which he has won success, 
demonstrating the wonderful capabilities of 
Idaho as a fruitgrowing state. 

Mr. Madison has not only been prospered 
in financial matters but his clear judgment and 
ability have caused him to be prominent in pub- 
lic affairs of a local nature, and he has held 
with conceded ability various local offices. He 
is a consistent and valued member of the Bap- 



3 o- 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tist church, in whose interest lie is also earnest, 
giving a full share of his time and energies to 
all things calculated to its advancement, while 
fraternally he occupies a prominent position in 
his lodge of Woodmen of the World, which is 
located at Idaho Falls. Politically, Mr. Madi- 
son is arrayed in the ranks of the Democratic 
party, believing that its principles and policies 
are the best adapted to conserve the interests 
of the American people. 

On February 13, 1888, Mr. Madison and 
Miss Zina Christiansen, a daughter of Hans 
and Marie (Poison) Christiansen, were united 
in marriage. She is a native of Utah, born on 
January 2, 1870. in Hyrum, Cache county, her, 
parents having early crossed the plains in one 
of the Mormon expeditions and located at Hy- 
rum, where her father died shortly after his ar- 
rival, and her mother is still residing on the lo- 
cation where they first settled, having later mar- 
ried with Joseph Fortune. By her first mar- 
riage she was the mother of three children. 
Mr. and Mrs. Madison have had the following 
children : John Louis Madison, born Novem- 
ber 19, 1888; Ada Maria Madison, born June 
18, 1890; Esther Charlotte Madison, torn Feb- 
ruary 26, 1892;. Arthur Conrad Madison, born 
January 18, 1894: Hazel Irene Madison, born 
September 8, 1896, died February 28, 1897; 
Mildred Idella Madison, born July 15. 1900, 
and Ethel May Madison, born March 13. 1903. 
Mr. and Mrs. Madison occupy an enviable posi- 
tion in the regards of the community where 
they make their home and are looked upon as 
leading and substantial citizens of the neighbor- 
hood, while they are more extensively known 
on account of their progressive and enterpris- 
ing business methods, their high integrity and 
their engaging social qualities, Mrs. Madison 
being a member of the Ladies' Circle Women 
of Woodcraft, located at Idaho Falls, and in 
many ways showing her interest in the wel- 
fare of those about her. 



GEORGE W. MARLER. 

Anyone who may visit the attractive ranch 
of the gentleman whose eminently busy career 
we now have under consideration might reas- 
onably come to the conclusion that Mr. George 
W. Marler has solved the great problem of how 
to attain human happiness, since he will there 
find him surrounded by all the environments 
of successful business enterprise, having a pro- 
ductive estate of nearly 200 acres under a high 
and a cumulative state of improvement, large 
and valuable crops responding to his intelligent 
cultivation, well-supplied water being a vital 
factor in the attractiveness and value of the 
property, while a promising orchard of well- 
chosen fruit trees, a portion of which is now in 
productive bearing, adds to the worth and 
charm of the place. 

Mr. Marler was born at Providence, Utah, 
on January 10, 1865, as a son of George W. 
and Mary (Matthews) Marler. the father being 
a native of the state of Mississippi and the 
mother of that sturdy and independent portion 
of the British Empire, the ancient kingdom of 
Wales, one of his grandfathers still enjoying 
life and retaining his faculties and strength to 
a marked degree at the hale old age of eighty- 
five years. The father came to Utah from Mis- 
sissippi in 1849. when a young man. and the 
mother a few years later walked the entire dis- 
tance of the long emigrant's trail as a member 
of one of the handcart brigades, pushing her 
cart and goods with a strength, courage and 
fortitude which showed that she possessed the 
right elements to battle with the adverse condi- 
tions of pioneer existence, thereafter locating at 
Ogden, where, on December 6, 1863, occurred 
her marriage. After this event the parents en- 
gaged in farming in the Cache Valley of Utah, 
where, passing long years of quiet. God-fearing 
and useful lives, they are now residing, having 
reared a family of ten children, and enjoying 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



30.3 



the respect and esteem of the community as 
early pioneers and peaceful citizens. 

George W. Marler of this review, after 
faithfully discharging his filial duties until he 
was twenty-one years of age, commenced his 
independent life by engaging for eight months 
in construction work on the Chicago & 
Northwestern Railroad at Douglas, Wyo.. 
from there returning to his father's farm, which 
he carried on successfully for two years, thence 
going to the Coeur de Alene country in the 
state of Washington and entering the service 
of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co. for 
about one year, thereafter making his way to 
Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he was employed as 
a salesman for the Z. C. M. I. for five years, 
subsequently to which service, in 1895, he lo- 
cated a homestead two miles due west of the 
townsite of La Belle, where he actively and en- 
ergetically devoted himself to its improvement 
and development during the seven years of his 
occupancy, at the end of this period of time pur- 
chasing ninety acres of 'land situated one mile 
west of Lorenzo. Removing thither, he has * 
since added to his property a squatter's claim 
of 100 acres, and on this fine tract of country 
he is prosperously conducting agricultural op- 
erations and combining therewith the raising 
of a fine quality of stock, consisting of horses, 
cattle and sheep, his attention to horticulture 
having produced a healthy and vigorous or- 
chard covering two acres of ground, one-half 
acre of it being now in profitable bearing. 

Mr. Marler has always shown a strong per- 
sonal interest in all projects intended to build 
up the prosperity of the people, was interested 
in the construction of the Great Feeder, and, a 
sterling Democrat, he has labored earnestly for 
the success of that party, holding also the posi - 
tion of deputy assessor in 1891 and 1892, and 
he is now performing a useful service as the 
clerk of the local board of school trustees. In 
the Church of Latter Day Saints he has been 

napH .- 



successively ordained as deacon, teacher and 
elder, being at this writing the incumbent of the 
last named office, as he is also of that of clerk 
of La Belle ward. 

On January 15, 1890, were wedded at Lo- 
gan, Utah, Mr. Marler and Miss Martha Chris- 
tiansen, a native of Denmark, her mother com- 
ing to Utah from her native land in 1849 anr l 
her father taking the same route in 185 1, they 
meeting in Salt Lake City, where they were 
married in May, 1866, thereafter removing to 
Hyrum, Cache county, Utah, where Mrs. Mar- 
ler was born on December 7, 1870, and where 
they still reside, the father being engaged in 
blacksmithing. To Mr. and Mrs. Marler have 
been born six children : Carmen V., on August 
9, 1 89 1, died when three and one-half years 
old; Martha, born on August 11, 1893; Geor- 
gia L., on November 15, 1894; George W., on 
June 28, 1898 ; Mary M., on January 13, 1900; 
Allen D., on April 12, 1902. 

WILLIAM NORTON MARLER. 

Among the representative citizens of Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, Mr. Marler deservedly 
maintains a high rank, being practical, painstak- 
ing and progressive in business and mental ac- 
tion, having a kind and generous disposition, 
high moral character, combined with a strict 
integrity and loyalty to the sentiment of "The 
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of 
Man." He was born on September 2, 1859, 
in Weber county, Utah, a son of William and 
Lucetta (Gates) Marler, who were married in 
Utah and followed agriculture in Weber county 
and the Cache Valley of Utah, until their 
deaths, the father at fifty years in 1869 and 
both the father and the mother are buried at 
Clifton, Idaho. 

William N. Marler was early made ac- 
quainted with the labors and duties of farm and 
ranch life, and, after attaining manhood, he 



3°4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



engaged in both of these departments of agri- 
culture for six productive years in Utah, there- 
after coming to Soda Springs. Idaho, being 
there identified with timber work for six years ; 
thence, in 1888, coming to Lewisville on his 
first visit to the Snake River Valley, after one 
year going to Fall River, where he remained 
for a year and located a homestead, which he 
relinquished, as no water could be obtained, 
thence returning to Lewisville. and he has since 
been connected with timber operations in vari- 
ous timber camps of Wyoming. His active 
sympathies are with the new movement of So- 
cialism and his religion is that of the Church 
of Latter Day Saints, in which he has faithfully 
performed the functions appertaining to the of- 
fices of deacon and elder, holding the latter of- 
fice at the present writing. 

It was a most felicitous marriage that was 
consummated on February 14, 1877, when Mr. 
Marler and Miss May Hicks were united. She 
was born at White Oak Springs. Eldorado 
county, California, on October 3. 1856. a 
daughter of Constantine (born Shaftsbury, 
Vt.), and Charlotte (Chase) Hicks, (born on 
May 11, 1825, at Bristol, Vt.), marrying at 
White Oak Springs, Calif., in September, 1850. 
Mrs. Marler is a lady of accomplishments and 
executive powers, holding numerous official po- 
sitions of importance to the great advantage of 
the people, among them being teacher of the 
Relief Society, and she was for two years the 
second counsellor of the Ladies' Association, 
treasurer of the Relief Society for six years, 
clerk of the school board for six years, while at 
Clifton, Idaho, she was the popular secretarv 
of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement So- 
ciety. Her father passed from earth in Cali- 
fornia and her mother is quietly resting at Og- 
den in the evening time of a life of seventy- 
eight years devoted to practical usefulness and 
good deeds. 

Seven children have been born to Mr. and 



Mrs. Marler, May, born November 24. 1877, 
married Dan Brion, has four children, and re- 
sides at Boise, Idaho ; Leila, born September 2 1 . 
1880, at this writing is a popular teacher at 
Parker, Idaho; Dora, born August 13. 1883. 
married Joseph Williams on December 3, 1903 : 
Charlotte, born August 25, 1885 ; William, born 
March 7, 1888; Truman, born August 14, 
1893; Milton, born September 13. 1899. 

OSCAR MARTIX. 

Among the hardworking and useful citizens 
of Fremont county, Idaho, Oscar Martin, of 
"La Belle, surely must be numbered in the front 
rank, for his life has ever been one of toil hon- 
estly performed from the age of ten years, in 
practice, as in theory, upholding the dignity of 
labor, and, at the same time, by his earnestness 
and his cheerfulness winning many friends. 
He was born in Upsala. Sweden, on September 
27, 1862, a son of John and Christina E. 
(Abramson) Matson, and for more especial ref- 
« erence to their history, the sketch of the father 
on another page of this volume may be con- 
sulted. At the age of ten years Oscar was em- 
ployed in the streetpaving operations of his fa- 
ther, who was a contractor in that line, contin- 
uing thus in the summer time for six succes- 
sive years, then, going into the stone quarrv of 
his father, he labored there, in the months of 
the year when he was not employed at paving, 
for four more years. He emigrated in 1882. 
and landed in Chicago, three years before bis 
parents' arrival, where he was engaged in car- 
pentry until 1884. which was followed by work- 
on a Wisconsin farm for nearly two vears. 
then by a short season of carpenter work in 
Chicago. Then he again came west, locating at 
Ogden, soon going thence to Pocatello. Idaho, 
where he became connected with the surveying 
department of the Oregon Short Line Railroad 
as a chainman until the fall of 1885, when. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



305 



coming lo La Belle, he located on a homestead 
of 160 acres, which, in a greatly changed and 
improved condition, is now his home. To se- 
cure the means for the development of his prop- 
erty, he successively worked at carpentry at 
Ogden and in the rock quarry at Idaho Falls, 
returning to La Belle in 1887, where he has 
since resided. He assisted in building the La 
Belle Canal and built the double headgates of 
that ditch. After taking out a private ditch, 
high water carried off the flume they had built 
across the slough, necessitating a reconstruc- 
tion, and they have now secured a good and last- 
ing ditch, which is a private canal. 

Although quite entitled to be called a 
farmer, Mr. Martin has never owned a horse, 
but, as he says, "he grubbed as long as he 
could," and then concluded he could do more 
profitable work for himself at his trade of car- 
penter, building the first mill erected at Menan, 
the Smith store and the Smith residence. He 
has also worked three years on bridge work for 
the Oregon Short Line Railroad and did car- 
penter work on Sam Harp's house in 1902. Al- 
together his services have been of much more 
than ordinary value to the people, as he can 
turn his hand to any trade or occupation with 
consummate skill. He is of that class of citi- 
zens who are a direct benefit to the community 
in which they reside. 

On October 24, 1887, he married with Miss 
Anna Grandine, a daughter of John and Emma 
(Forslund) Grandine, natives of Sweden, where 
she was born on November 2, 1869, coming to 
the United States in 1879, and locating at Og- 
den> whither her parents also came in 189 1 and 
now reside. The children of this marriage are 
as follows : May Victoria, born August 9, 
1888, died December 28. 1893 ; Oscar, born 
May 28, 1891, died December 29, 1893; Otto 
R.„ born July 30, 1892; Minnie S., born July 
21, 1894; John E., born March 19, 1896; Kis- 
sie D., born February 13, 1900. 



JOHN MARTIN. 

John Martin, of Preston, Oneida county, in 
this state, the pioneer fruitgrower of the sec- 
tion in which he lives, standing easily at the 
head of the business there, is a native of Bed- 
fordshire, England, where he was born 'on No- 
vember 15, 1 84 1. His parents, Samuel and 
Priscilla (Lay ton) Martin, were also na- 
tives of England • where the father was 
a market gardener. They became converts 
to Mormonism in the early forties, and 
in 1850 emigrated to the United States, 
landing at New Orleans. From there 
they proceeded up the Mississippi River to St. 
Louis, where they made their home for a few 
years. In 1852 the mother died in that city, 
and in 1855 the father and children came across 
the plains to Utah. After arriving at Salt Lake 
they went west to Grantsville, where Bishop 
Layton, maternal uncle of John Martin, was liv- 
ing. He had the best farm in the neighborhood 
and Samuel Martin worked on it for a few 
years, then bought a place of his own and went 
' to farming on his own account, continuing his 
operations in this line until his death. 

John Martin, of this review, received but 
little education at the schools, and is chiefly in- 
debted for whatever he has acquired in the way 
of learning to the instructions of his parents 
and his own endeavors. As soon as he was able 
he was obliged to go to work and, being willing 
and industrious, he was never without an en- 
gagement or plenty to do. He remained at 
home with his father and assisted on the farm 
much of the time, being always willing to take 
a hand at anything. In 1863 he was called to 
cross the plains eastward to conduct emigrants 
to Utah. In 1865 he took up his residence at 
Kaysville in the family of his uncle. Bishop 
Layton, of that ward, and here he remained 
two years. 

He married on November 13, 1868, at Salt 



3 o6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Lake City, with Miss Kate Burton, a native of 
England and a daughter of William and Jane 
(Dredge) Burton, who came from that country 
to America in 1854, and, in 1855, settled at 
Grantsville, Utah, where the father took up 
land and engaged in farming. They passed 
their surviving lives at that place, the mother 
dying in 1889 and the father in 1890. After 
his marriage Mr. Martin lived at Grantsville 
for two years, until in 1870 he was called as 
one of the chosen number to settle the Bear 
Lake country in this state, which was then con- 
sidered as a part of Utah. The land was yet 
unsurveyed, and the settlers who occupied it 
acquired only squatters* rights. 

Mr. Martin located a tract near Liberty and 
started an enterprise in farming and raising 
stock, continuing this industry in that section 
until 1881, then, wishing to live in a country 
where he could raise fruit, he sold his interests 
at Liberty and settled near Preston, on school 
land east of his present ranch, which he farmed 
until 1885. He then bought the ranch on 
which he now lives, which lies south of Preston 
only one-fourth of a mile from the town limits. 
Here he planted trees and by his example en- 
couraged others to do the same, as he was the 
first to do this in the neighborhood, and he now 
has his reward in the tall and stately elms 
which surround his house. He also set out an 
orchard which has come into a fine bearing 
condition and contains all the varieties of fruit 
suitable to this latitude. He also has a large 
part of his land set out to small fruits which 
he produces in the greatest abundance and of 
the finest quality. 

The products of his berry patches are in 
great demand, and have the highest rank in the 
market. His fruit industry is one of the most 
extensive and successful in this part of the 
state, and has attracted attention throughout a 
much larger scope of country. Mr. Martin is 
one of the best known men in the county, and 



it is characteristic of his pluck, perseverance 
and skill that a new industry in this section 
should prosper greatly in his hands. He is also 
an enterprising farmer and also successfully 
handles cattle. In church matters he has taken 
a great interest and given great aid, both him- 
self and his wife being especially devoted to the 
care of the sick, to whom they give much time 
and attention. The family consists of seven 
children. Rose Zeltha, Priscilla, Ann Eliza, W. 
Burton, Ella. Maud and Ezra. A daughter. 
Amy, is deceased. 

JUDGE JAMES M. MASOXHEIMER. 

In every community there are certain men, 
who. by their enterprise, straightforward busi- 
ness methods and public spirit, maintain the 
prosperity and progressiveness of the place. 
and among the citizens of Pocatello. Idaho, no 
one is more worthy of mention that the gentle- 
man whose name forms the heading of this me- 
moir. Judge J. M. Masonheimer, now a popular 
justice of the peace of the city of Pocatello, 
from which office he derives his honorary title 
of "Judge." He was born in Franklin count}-. 
Pa., on October 31, 1835. a son of John and 
Elizabeth (Dysert) Masonheimer. the father 
being a native of Maryland and the mother of 
Pennsylvania. The paternal ancestors traced 
back their lineage through many generations of 
occupancy of the Rhine province of Alsace- 
Lorraine, the family, however, having been es- 
tablished on American soil antecedent to the 
American Revolution. The father was a dealer 
in boots and shoes, and a public-spirited man, 
held high in the esteem of the community and 
a capable holder of offices of trust and respon- 
sibility. 

Judge Masonheimer received his literary 
education in the excellent public schools of Car- 
lisle, Pa., which he supplemented by diligent 
study at his home and thereafter engaged in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



30/ 



pedagogic work, being a valued instructor in 
the Carlisle schools for sixteen years and there- 
after engaging in trade. During the Civil war 
as a member of a Pennsylvania military com- 
pany, he was called into service and participat- 
ed in the battle of Antietam. He was engaged 
in merchandising in Carlisle until 1866, when 
he located as a merchant in New York City, 
where, losing his capable wife by death, he 
closed out his interests and came west in 1868, 
locating in Pocatello, and was in the service 
of the Oregon Short Line Railroad for two 
years when he became a merchant of Pocatello, 
conducting a prosperous trade until 1900, when 
he was elected, as a Democrat, to the important 
office of justice of the peace, equivalent to the 
police judge of Eastern cities, and from that 
time to the present writing he has filled that 
responsible position by successive re-elections 
at which he was given large majorities. He 
was also the efficient incumbent of the office of 
city treasurer for two years. Fraternally he is 
connected with the Masonic and Odd Fellows 
societies, standing high in both organizations. 
Whatever of merit attaches to the name of 
pioneer surely ought to be given to Judge 
Masonheimer, who has seen the city of Poca- 
tello grow from a mere hamlet containing only 
the houses and buildings constructed by the 
railroad company for its use, until the prosper- 
ous, thriving and progressive city is now pre- 
sented to the view. The marriage of this es- 
timable and honorable citizen occurred in Car- 
lisle, Pa., on July 3, 1861, when he wedded 
with Miss Matilda R. Keeney, a native of that 
state and a daughter of John and Elizabeth 
(Updegraff) Keeney, representatives of old- 
time families, and the four children of this 
marriage are : Mary E., now the widow of the 
late John C. O'Melveny, of Pocatello; John K., 
a resident of Pueblo, Colo. ; George H., a vet- 
eran of the Spanish-American war, in which 
he served in the Philippine Islands as a member 



of Company G, of the First Idaho Infantry, his 
present occupation being locomotive engineer 
on the Oregon Short Line Railroad; Ridgley 
W., a stockman in northern Idaho. In his of- 
ficial capacity the Judge has become widely and 
favorably known, while in business and social 
circles he has manifested the qualities that have 
brought him success in official relations and has 
attached to him a large circle of unwavering 
and loyal friends. 

BRIGHAM MATHEWS. 

The men of force and capacity who take 
strong hold of the rugged conditions of life and 
mould them into successful and useful careers, 
are entitled to all honor among their fellows, 
not only for the individual triumphs they may 
win, but for the fruitful potencies awakened 
and inspired by their example, their industry 
and their useful lives. In this class in the local- 
ity of his residence in Bingham county, Idaho, 
Mr. Brigham Mathews holds a conceded rank. 
His useful life began on March 7, 1852, in 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, whither his parents, Wil- 
liam and Jane (Steed) Mathews, had emigrated 
from their native land of England, they coming 
to the LTnited States from Herefordshire in 
their early married life. 

Brigham Mathews was less than one year 
old when his parents started, in 1853, w ' tn a 
large company of Mormon emigrants with ox 
teams, across the plains, their ultimate destina- 
tion being the far-distant land of Utah, which, 
after enduring many privations and many 
thrilling experiences, they finally reached in 
safety, locating in Davis county, where they 
passed the remainder of their days, diligently 
engaged in the development and improvement 
of the country, being there industrious fanners 
and most useful members of society, the 
father's death occurring in Weber county in 
1865, the mother long surviving him, her death 



3 o8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



coming to her at Idaho Falls, Idaho, on De- 
cember 12, 1890. Of their nine children, only 
three are now living. Mary A., Brigham and 
Heber are now residents of Woodville, main- 
taining by their lives and activities the good 
reputation of the family. 

Brigham Mathews was the eldest son, and 
upon the death of his father, the responsibility 
of the care of the family devolved upon him, 
and with filial devotion he applied himself to 
the task, being prospered in his undertakings 
and greatly aided by the spirit of fraternal love 
pervading the entire household. In 1888, at- 
tracted by the advantages which were presented 
by the section of Idaho now included in Bing- 
ham county, he migrated thither and located a 
homestead of eighty acres on which he has 
since resided. His care and discriminating 
efforts have well improved it, and this he main- 
tains as the headquarters of his stockgrowing 
operations, which have assumed scope and im- 
portance. 

The peculiar relations in which he has stood 
as the head of the family has caused him to re- 
main unmarried. 

He has taken from his first arrival here a 
position highly honorable to him in the affairs 
of the county, his capability and wise judg- 
ment being in evidence oftentimes in public 
matters of local interest, serving two most suc- 
cessful terms as justice of the peace, and being 
a leader in the construction of the Woodville 
Irrigation Canal, while for some length of 
time he was the president of the company 
which constructed it. Mr. Mathews has been 
very successful through his industry and defin- 
ite application of means to desired ends by his 
approved methods. 

William Mathews, deceased, accompanied 
his brother, Brigham, to Idaho, and located a 
homestead claim immediately adjoining his. 
He was a man of forceful energy and many 
sterling qualities and acquired distinction as the 



principal irrigation canal constructor of the 
count}-, largely devoting his attention to this 
object. He was the builder of the Great West- 
ern Irrigation Canal and several others of great 
importance in the development of the county. 
His birth occurred in Utah on November i_\ 
1854, and he died at Boise, Idaho, on Decem- 
ber 21. 1901. leaving a wife and six children. 
His wife was Elizabeth Everett, and she was 
born at Ogden on January 16. 1858. The 
names of their children are: John. Arnold. 
Pearl, Earl, Eugene and William. 

HEBER MATHEWS. 

On other pages of this volume, and in con- 
nection with the review of the life of Brigham 
Mathews, an elder brother of the one whose 
name heads this article, will be found definite 
mention concerning the parents of the subject 
of this review, but it is due that recognition 
be distinctively given to Heber Mathews him- 
self, who is now one of the representative citi- 
zens of Bingham county, where his home is lo- 
cated on a well-developed ranch of 120 acres at 
Woodville. which is his postoffice address, lit 
was born on February 13. 1856. at Kaysville, 
Utah, his parents being William and Jane 
(Steed) Mathews, natives of Herefordshire, 
England. 

Mr. Mathews was reared on the farm of his 
parents in his native state, receiving such edu- 
cational advantages as were furnished by the 
schools of his neighborhood, attaining health 
and vigor in the rural surroundings and pure 
air of his birthplace, and at the age of fourteen 
years assuming the responsibilities of life for 
himself. From this time and for many years 
thereafter he was industriously engaged in cul- 
tivating the soil and attending to the necessary 
duties of citizenship and to those appertaining 
to his religious faith. In 1889 he came to 
Bingham county, his older brother having pre- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



309 



ceded him thither by a year, and here he has 
since been diligently engaged in the multifar- 
ious duties connected with successful farming 
and stockraising, his ranch of 120 acres show- 
ing marked and distinctive evidence of his 
skill and industry in its development, while he 
was one of the earliest to devote attention to 
the construction of irrigation canals, in which 
he has attained local prominence. 

In Weber county, Utah, on December 25, 
1885, occurred his marriage with Miss Nancy 
A. Hammer, born May 9, 1869, a daughter of 
Austin and Sarah J. (Paine) Hammer, of 
whom a comprehensive history appears on other 
pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Mathews 
have been the parents of these children : Grant, 
born on February 17, 1888; Vida, born on 
January 24, 1890; Eva, born on January 27, 
1892 ; Frank M., born on July 25, 1893 ; Jane, 
born on April 18, 1894: Charles (deceased), 
born on October 6, 1896; an unnamed child, 
that died in infancy; Irene, born on February 
17, 1903. Mr. Mathews has accomplished re- 
sults which would suggest a much longer term 
of active effort, and he is firmly established in 
the regards and esteem of his fellow men, hav- 
ing always faithfully discharged his obligations 
and duties to society and being signally true in 
all the relations of life. He is one of the board 
of trustees of the Woodville Canal Co. 

OLONZO D. MERRILL. 

Olonzo D. Merrill, of Preston, who since 
1896 has been prominent and influential in 
business and church circles in the community, 
which then became his home, is a native of 
Richmond, Utah, where he was born on De- 
cember 13, 1867. His parents are Mariner W. 
and Cyrene (Standley) Merrill, the former a 
native of New Brunswick, Canada, and the lat- 
ter of Ohio. They were married in Salt Lake 
City, the father coming to Utah from his Cana- 



dian home in 1852 and the mother's family 
from Ohio in 1854. Both families settled at 
Woods Cross, north of Salt Lake, where the 
senior Mr. Merrill engaged in farming. Soon 
after his marriage he removed to Richmond, in 
Cache county, and settled on a homestead, 
where he continued farming operations and still 
resides. 

Himself and wife were pioneers in that lo- 
cality, and through their efforts, and those of 
others, it has progressed to its present pros- 
perity and development, and they have lived to 
see the fruits of their labors in well-advanced 
maturity around them, not only in the inviting 
and productive condition of their own farm, 
but in every phase of the public and social life 
of the community. The father was called to be 
bishop of his ward soon after his arrival at 
Richmond, and for eighteen years thereafter 
he served in that capacity. He was then called 
to the presidency of the Cache stake, which he 
held until 1890, when he was called to the 
apostleship in which he is still serving. The 
mother is also living. 

Their son, Olonzo D. Merrill, attained man- 
hood and received his early education at Rich- 
mond, supplementing this by attendance at the 
University of Deseret, as the University of 
Utah was then called. At this institution he 
pursued a thorough business course, and, after 
his graduation in the spring of 1888, he accept- 
ed a position in the Cache Valley mills at Rich- 
mond, which he filled until the spring of 1892, 
when he resigned to go on a mission for the 
church to the Friendly Islands. The people of 
these islands are somewhat like our American 
Indians, and were formerly cannibals. The 
missionary work of Mr. Merrill, which lasted 
about three and one-half years, was of great 
service in spreading the Mormon faith among 
the primitive people of the islands, awakening 
them to efforts to obtain a higher civilization. 
Returning to Richmond, Utah, in September, 



3io 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1895, he engaged in farming for a year near 
the town, and in the fall of 1896 came to Idaho 
and settled near Preston in Oneida county, on 
land which he purchased and on which he at 
once started, and for a number of months con- 
ducted, a dairy business. 

In August. 1897, he transferred the man- 
agement of this industry to another person and 
accepted the management of the Preston 
branch of the Consolidated Implement Co., a 
position which he still holds and in which he is 
doing excellent work for the company. He is 
also extensively interested in farming and 
raising stock, having a farm in the near vicin- 
ity of Preston and another one in Cache county, 
Utah. He still retains an interest in the dairy 
business and has a cattle ranch and dairy in 
Bannock county. 

In the mercantile life of Preston he is large- 
ly and actively concerned. He was one of the 
incorporators of the Preston Co-operative 
Drug Co., and its first president. He still 
owns a large block of its stock and gives its af- 
fairs the benefit of his excellent judgment and 
practical business knowledge. To the welfare 
and progress of his church he has always been 
devoted, withholding no service that he could 
render, and avoiding no call it has made upon 
his time or energies, no matter what personal 
sacrifices may have been involved. 

On December 13, 1888, at Logan, Utah, he 
was united in marriage with Miss Martha L. 
Whittle, a native of Utah, daughter of John C. 
and Mary A. (Harris) Whittle, the father a 
native of Canada and the mother of Indiana. 
They were prosperous farmers at Richmond, 
Utah, where the father died on March II, 
1897, and the mother is still making her home. 
Mr. and Mrs. Merrill have two children, their 
sons, Olonzo D.. Jr., and Casper Whittle Mer- 
rill. The head of the house is one of the lead- 
ing citizens and most progressive, enterprising 
and influential business men of Oneida county, 
and is universally respected by its people. 



W. D. METCALF. 

Born at Brigham City, Utah, on February 
2j, i860, a son of Anthony and Mary ( Keeder) 
Metcalf, the subject of this review is thorough- 
ly a product of the West, his education, his 
business life and his successes pertaining to no 
other land and no other region. His father, 
Anthony Metcalf, was a native of England, 
where he married Mary Reeder, a daughter of 
George Reeder, who passed all of his life in 
England. In 1847, Anthony Reeder and wife 
emigrated from England, crossing the Atlantic 
to New York, where they remained until 1849, 
thence performing the long distance of hazard- 
ous travel to Utah, there making their home 
in Salt Lake City until their removal to Brig- 
ham City in 185 1, residing there for a period ■ 1 
six vears, then becoming one of the first fam- 
ilies to settle at Hyde Park, which they did in 
the spring of i860. From Hyde Park, in 
1878, they changed their residence to Malad. 
Idaho, where the father died in 1882, at the 
age of sixty-two years, being buried at St. 
John, Oneida county, while the mother is still 
living in the Malad Valley, having attained 
nearly the scriptural allotment of life, three 
score vears and ten, Mr. Metcalf being their 
only child. 

William D. Metcalf passed his early life m 
the Cache Valley of Utah, diligently preparing 
himself for the duties of life by an attendance 
at school and also laboring at the various pur- 
suits incident to farming life, commencing hia 
individual career at the age of seventeen by en- 
tering the employ of an uncle in the Cache Val- 
ley, with whom he remained for five years, be- 
coming thoroughly versed in the methods and 
principles of conducting agricultural opera- 
tions to successful results. On April 1. 1880, 
he formed a matrimonial alliance with Miss 
Eliza Hancey, a native of Hyde Park. Utah, 
and a daughter of James and Rachel (Sim- 
mons) Hancev, English emigrants, who. in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3" 



1849, settled in New Jersey, but a few years 
later removed to Utah, that they might have the 
privilege of worshiping God according to their 
own conscience, without fear or molestation, 
there settling in the Cache Valley, where they 
now reside, being honored and highly respect- 
ed citizens of the community. 

Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Met- 
calf engaged in freighting operations and also 
in contract work in railroad construction, in 
which he continued for quite a length of time. 
He then purchased a farm at Battle Creek, in 
the southern part of Idaho, where he remained 
two years, then selling his interest, and, in 
1886, coming to Bingham county, where he 
availed himself of the government right of 
homestea cling, filing on 160 acres of land, situ- 
ated eight miles northeast of Idaho Falls, the 
same place which has since been his headquar- 
ters of a profitable and rapidly increasing busi- 
ness in the raising of horses, cattle and sheep. 
On this place he has made suitable and valu- 
able improvements and has added eighty acres 
of land to his original homestead, thus becom- 
ing the owner of 240 acres of highly productive 
land. 

A public-spirited man, who carefully con- 
siders the best interests of his state and com- 
munity, Mr. Metcalf has ever been a valued 
member of the Democratic political party, his 
counsel and personal assistance being freely 
given to the advancement of this cause and the 
success of its candidates, and he was nominated 
as the candidate of his party for -member of 
the Legislature in 1899, at the succeeding elec- 
tion receiving a highly complimentary vote and 
being elected to that position for the term of 
two years. While an incumbent of this office 
he gave faithful and appreciative service to his 
constituents and the general public, and he has 
served as a trustee of his school district for a 
term of years, while he also has done much for 
the educational interests of his section. All in 



all, he is one of the popular, progressive and 
energetic citizens of the county, and in the lay- 
ing out and construction of roads he has taken 
an active part to the benefit of the entire com- 
munity. Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf have had ten 
children, namely: Reathy, Maggie, Milly (de- 
ceased), William, George, Clyde, Jesse, Ida, 
Iva and Carl. 

JAMES MITCHELL, Sr. 

Even at the present time, so rapid has been 
the improvement and development of this 
countr}', there are few who really understand 
or can comprehend the vicissitudes which were 
common to the early frontier residents in the 
Great West, or can even understand the numer- 
ous peculiar experiences of the pioneers of that 
day. Enough is known, however, by the people 
that they hold in veneration and esteem the sur- 
vivors of that primitive period, and extend a 
hand of cordial friendship to any one who can 
demonstrate his right to be justly called an 
"old-timer" in the land. Conspicuously iden- 
tified with this early life is the subject of this 
review, James Mitchell, who from early child- 
hood has been a prominent factor in the stirring 
events which have culminated in the wresting 
from savage possession the lands of the Great 
West and placing theni in civilized occupanc?. 

Mr. Mitchell was born at Clachmannin, 
Scotland, on February 4, 1841-, a son of James 
and. Janette (Fife) Mitchell, representatives of 
some of the oldest and proudest families of that 
stern land of independence, his paternal 
grandparents being James and Christiana 
(Ewing) Mitchell. When the subject of this 
review was but nine years of age, he com- 
menced his varied experiences with life by 
crossing the Atlantic ocean with his parents, 
and located with them at St. Louis in 1850, 
two years later accompanying the family mi- 
gration to Utah across the plains. In Utah the 



3 12 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



family located first in Salt Lake City, shortly 
thereafter removing to Provo, where they 
passed the winter of 1852-3, thence migrating 
to Cedar City, while in the fall of 1853 they 
crossed the desert to San Bernardino county, 
Calif., where for six years they made their 
home in that primitive section, eventually re- 
turning to Utah, and, in 1859, the family 
home was permanently located at Riverdale. 
Weber county, where the father, who had been 
a coal miner in his native land, engaged in ag- 
riculture, being also dignified with the position 
of a Seventy in the Mormon church. His death 
occurred on March 11, 1890, at an advanced 
age, and that of the mother in 1899, and both 
await the resurrection in the pleasant little 
cemetery at Ogden. Their four children were. 
James, John, Andrew (deceased) and Jeanette. 

James Mitchell was the eldest son of his 
parents, and, from the very conditions of his 
early life, he acquired a vigorous constitution 
and a great fund of physical endurance, and 
also inherited those cardinal virtues and char- 
acteristics of the Scotch nation, independence, 
self-reliance, indomitable courage and correct 
moral principle. For many years the life he 
led was in regions remote from the civilizing 
influence of the East, but in all of these vicissi- 
tudes, deprivations and hardships he never 
sacrificed his principles of right and justice, 
being always ready to lend a hand to those who 
were in need and a strong defender of the right 
under all circumstances. 

Did space permit we would gladly relate 
some typical instances of his adventures among 
the rugged surroundings in which certain peri- 
ods of his life were cast, which would include 
tales of wild animals and wilder Indians and 
daring desperadoes, but, preserving a steady de- 
meanor, undaunted courage and a calm, consid- 
erate judgment, he was ever master of circum- 
stances and is now quietly and pleasantly locat- 
ed in a community where he can rest secure 



from a repetition of his former oftentimes per- 
ilous experiences. Attaining manhood in Cali- 
fornia and Utah, at the age of twenty-four 
years he commenced his initial business opera- 
tions as a farmer at Riverdale. Utah. He was 
also one of the first settlers of Hooper, Weber 
county, in that state. 

In 1885 he came to Idaho, and in Bingham 
county availed himself of his homestead pre- 
emption rights, taking the land where he now 
resides, and where he has developed a beautiful 
home and estate of 320 acres, with a commo- 
dious and valuable residence and suitable out- 
buildings, all of which manifest the taste and 
thrift of the owner, entering into the work of 
the improvement of his property with all of 
the energy and ambition of his nature, secur- 
ing irrigation rights and becoming one of the 
builders of the Cedar Point irrigation canal, 
ever showing sagacity, capable management, 
enterprise and sound judgment in all secular 
matters to which he gave his attention. 

Like all "old-timers," Mr. Mitchell is dem- 
ocratic in style, and possessing a benevolent 
spirit and kindly impulses, he is quick to re- 
spond to any call for aid and to encourage those 
who are endeavoring to outgrow an adverse 
fate. Indolence and idleness, however, have no 
part in his nature, and he has no sympathy for 
the manifestations of either in others. In busi- 
ness dealings scrupulously exact and fair, he is 
held in high esteem in a large circle of ac- 
quaintances, and also in the Mormon church, of 
which he is a consistent member, and his life 
is an object lesson of real value to the observ- 
ing and thoughtful. 

At Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 16, 
1865, Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage 
with Miss Annie Hull, a native of Scotland. 
born on May 28, 1849, a daughter of Thomas 
and Mary (Benson) Hull, who were natives of 
the northeast of Ireland, thence going to Scot- 
land, where thev resided for many vears before 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3*3 



emigrating from that country to the United 
States in the early fifties. Thereafter, in 1859, 
they crossed the plains to Utah, thence moving 
to Franklin, Idaho, where they were among 
the first settlers of that place, later making the 
family home at Hooper, Utah, where the 
mother died in i860, the father later returning 
to western Idaho, where occurred his death in 
1877. 

The record of the children of this typical 
old pioneer, with the dates of their respective 
births, fittingly closes this sketch : Mary A. 
was born on January 2, 1866, and is now de- 
ceased; James A., born on January 3, 1867; 
Thomas, October 28, 1868; John, February 1, 
1870; William, October 5, 1871 ; Joseph, May 
24, 1873, deceased; Jeanette, April 16, 1874, 
deceased; Walter C, February 3, 1876; Rich- 
ard C, December 16, .1878; Margaret (de- 
ceased) and Adam, twins, October 6, 1879; 
Helen M., May 21, 1882; Anna C, March 11, 
18S4; Nettie Bell, December 22, 1887, who is 
also deceased. 

HYRUM SMITH MULLINER. 

In the entire county of Bingham, in the 
state of Idaho, in which he resides, there is no 
more highly respected person than Hyrum 
Smith Mulliner, one of its representative 
farmers and stockraisers, who is esteemed, not 
only for his many sterling qualities of head and 
heart, but for his superior intelligence and act- 
ive business ability. 

Mr. Mulliner is a native of Utah, having 
been born on February 18, 1864, at Lehi, a son 
of Samuel and Mary (Richardson) Mulliner. 
His father was a native of Scotland, who, after 
his emigration from that land, resided in the 
Eastern states of America, from which he emi- 
grated to Utah, where his last days were passed 
in Lehi, as an earnest and consistent member 
of the Mormon church. His wife, the mother 



of our subject, was a native of England and 
a daughter of Aaron and Mary Richardson, 
both parents leaving England with a company 
of Mormon emigrants in the early years of the 
faith, her father, however, dying on the plains 
before reaching his ultimate destination, the 
mother arriving in Utah, where she is still re- 
siding, being the mother of six children. Mrs. 
Mary (Richardson) Mulliner, at the age of 
seventy-three years, passed from this mortal 
sphere on July 15, 1902, at the residence of her 
son, Hyrum, and awaits the resurrection in the 
little cemetery at Iona. 

Until the age of seventeen years Hyrum 
Smith Mulliner was engaged in attendance at 
the excellent Utah schools and in the perform- 
ance of the various duties appertaining to life 
on the farm. Then leaving the parental roof, 
he identified himself with mining operations in 
Utah and Idaho until 1884, when he came to 
Bingham county and located on a homestead 
seven miles north of Idaho Falls, on which he 
commenced development work, two years later, 
however, selling it and purchasing his present 
place, which is located five miles northeast of 
Idaho Falls, and from that time he has been 
engaged in farming and stockraising, being 
prospered in his efforts and yearly adding to his 
financial reinforcement. Always actively in- 
terested in public matters of a local nature,*he 
was a strong advocate of the free silver move- 
ment, and held with conceded ability the office 
of constable of Iona precinct for two terms. 

On February 18, 1897, Miss Maggie 
Adams, a native of American Forks, Utah, be- 
came the wife of Mr. Mulliner. Her father, R. 
Z. Adams, was an early Mormon emigrant 
from Canada to Utah and a pioneer settler of 
American Forks, where he resided until his 
death. His wife, Catherine (Cunningham) 
Adams, who was a native of Scotland, is still 
maintaining her home at American Forks. Mr. 
and Mrs. Mulliner have three children : Hyrum 



3*4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



D., Mary B., and Louis U. Mr. Mulliner is a 
living example of what men of strong energy, 
thrift, sound judgment and superior natural 
ability can accomplish in this great state of 
Idaho, which is yet in her infancy, and still 
offers to all comers positions of advancement 
and prosperity, standing high in the good opin- 
ion of his fellow citizen's and being a potential 
factor in every good phase of the life of the 
community in which he resides. 

FRANK S. DIETRICH. 

It is absolutely necessary, in preparing a 
work of the character of this volume, devoted 
to the progressive men of this section of the 
state, that the eminent attorney whose name 
heads this review should receive due atten- 
tion, for he is recognized by the legal fra- 
ternity of the entire state as one of its leading 
and representative members. Frank Sigel 
Dietrich was horn near Ottawa, Kans.. on 
January 23, 1863, his parents, natives of the 
vicinity of Frankfort, Germany, coming in 
1855 to America, and, after a short residence 
in Chicago, locating at Ohio City, Kan., as 
pioneer farmers, a life for which thev were ill 
prepared, either by education or experience, 
but which they conducted along successful 
lines. 

Kansas was then passing through that 
tense, critical and tragic epoch of her history 
when the forces of freedom and slavery were 
contending for supremacy, and no one of dar- 
ing and independent thought could prevent 
himself from being sharply identified with one 
side or the other. Mr. Dietrich, a strong 
Abolitionist and Union man, lived in the sec- 
tion of the territory rendered both conspicu- 
ous and dangerous by the operations of John 
Brown and Ouantrell and was. often menaced 
by personal danger, doing well his part, how- 
ever, in those crucial times until his death, in 



September, 1863, when his son Frank was an 
infant of eight months. The liberty-loving 
opinions of the parents were most clearly 
evidenced in the name given to their son, 
which perpetuates the memory of Gen. Franz 
Sigel. the German patriot that rendered such 
distinguished service in the Federal army of 
the Civil war. 

Through the zeal and self-sacrifice of 
his widowed mother, and by means of his own 
industry and thrift, the subject of this sketch 
was able to attend the winter terms of the 
public schools, and to fit for college in the 
academic department of Ottawa (Kans.) 
University ; thereafter he matriculated at 
Brown University, of Providence, R. I., from 
which noted school he was graduated in 1887. 
He was appointed professor of political 
economy in his earlier educational institution. 
Ottawa University, the duties of which he 
creditably discharged for some years. He 
came to Idaho to establish himself in the legal 
profession in July, 1 89 1 , and in January, 1892, 
was admitted to practice in both the state and 
United States courts. He was soon the 
senior member of the prominent law firm of 
Dietrich, Chalmers & Stevens, of Blackfoot, 
and from that time to the present he has taken 
a high rank among the lawyers of Idaho and 
built up a Mattering clientage. From Black- 
foot, his first residence in the state. Mr. 
Dietrich removed to Pocatello in 181)9. ne 
having been about that time appointed at- 
torney for the Oregon Short Line Railroad, 
his jurisdiction extending over Idaho and 
Wyoming. 

On September 27, 1893. Mr. Dietrich 
wedded with Miss Martha Behle, a daughter 
of Dr. 'William H. Behle, now deceased. Two 
daughters, Margaret Kathryn and Isabel, 
have been born of this marriage. 

Always a Republican, he has given much 
of force and vigor to the various campaigns 




*/•&/. KA LAsb^L.d\^ 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3*7 



of his party. As a man, as a. citizen, as a 
valued representative of the bar of the state, 
Mr. Dietrich stands well in the front rank, 
being allied with and heartily in support of 
all measures tending to the advancement of 
the best interests of the community and the 
state at large. He is chairman of the public 
school board, and president of the board of 
trade. He is also a member of the fraternal 
organizations of Freemasons and Odd Fel- 
lows, while he is one of the useful members 
of the Baptist church. 

R. H. NAEF. 

To the rugged land of Switzerland we must 
take our steps if we would consult the official 
records of the ancestry of R. H. Naef, the sub- 
ject of this review, for his progenitors for 
many generations have lived and died under 
the shadow of the Alps or on the shores of the 
Lake of Geneva. His father, Jacob I. Naef, 
was born in the little republic of Switzerland, 
where he attained his maturity in 1842, and in 
1858, accompanied by his mother, who died at 
Providence, Utah, at the age of seventy-eight 
years, he bade adieu to his native land, crossed 
the turbulent waters of the great Atlantic 
Ocean, thereafter continuing his journey over 
the wild outstretching plains west of the Mis- 
sissippi River in company with an ox-team car- 
avan of Mormons. Upon his arrival in Utah 
he located as a pioneer settler at Providence in 
Cache Valley, there becoming a farmer and 
continuing this healthful and invigorating oc- 
cupation until the present time, having attained 
the age of sixty years and being an elder in the 
Mormon church. His wife, the mother of the 
subject of this sketch, who was in her girlhood 
Mary Frey, a daughter of Rudolph Frey, was 
the mother of nine children. 

Rudolph H. Naef, after a preliminary edu- 
cation at the excellent schools at Providence, 



supplemented this by a diligent attendance for 
one season at the celebrated Brigham Young 
College at Logan, Utah, and thereafter engaged 
in the battle of life for himself, coming to what 
is now Fremont county, Idaho, in 1889, and 
locating on a tract of land two miles east of 
Teton City, which, from a lack of water, he 
abandoned, and, with his brother, Jacob D., he 
then purchased his present estate, consisting of 
160 acres, now finely irrigated and improved, 
and here he engaged in the diversified farming 
at which he still continues, being most prosper- 
ously employed. A man of sagacious wisdom 
and excellent administrative ability, Mr. Naef 
has been called to fill many stations of trust in 
both public and private secular and religious 
relations. 

On his arrival at his present residence the 
town of Teton was very new, and he was 
chosen and appointed to hold not only all of the 
offices of the town, but also many of the 
church, demonstrating by the results of his ad- 
ministration that his selection was an eminent- 
ly wise one. In political relations as a Demo- 
crat he has held with conspicuous ability the 
office of deputy county assessor under the full 
administration of John Pincock and two years 
under that of M. W. Hammond. Mr. Naef 
has given largely of his time to the advance- 
ment of the interests of the Mormon church 
and held for eight years the position of coun- 
sellor to Bishop Pincock, of Fremont ward, 
evincing in this position, as in his secular re- 
lations, qualities which redound to the benefit 
of the church. 

On January 2, 1880, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Naef with Miss Rosalie Haderlie, a na- 
tive of Providence, Utah, and a daughter of 
John U. and Ann (Zollinger) Haderlie, and for 
further particulars of her parentage and an- 
cestry we would refer the reader to the sketch 
of her parents, who settled in Utah in 1854, 
after their emigration from Switzerland, in 



3i8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



which they were accompanied by her maternal 
grandparents, who have long since passed 
away from earth, both having attained vener- 
able ages. 

Air. and Mrs. Naef's home circle embraces 
these children : Lester, Edna, Leona, Loretta, 
Florence and Gladys, and the family is con- 
spicuously known in the circles of its numerous 
acquaintances and friends for genial hospitality 
and courteous manners. In this connection wc 
will also state that when Mr. Naef was a youth 
of but sixteen years he was placed in charge of 
both his father's family and agricultural inter- 
ests while the senior proceeded to Switzerland 
on missionary work. To recompense him in 
some measure for these services, his father 
gave him on his departure, a yoke of oxen, 
which he drove during the four years of ab- 
sence, but before his father had returned he 
had earned a team of horses, besides success- 
fully cultivating the farm. 

The marvelous success of the Mormon 
church in its increase of members and its de- 
velopment of its grand colonization schemes 
has been largely furthered by the untiring and 
unselfish efforts of such men as Mr. Naef, who 
have given their lives largely for its advance- 
ment and its seryice in the spirit of the old 
apostles, considering that the church demanded 
and was entitled to the best efforts of his best 
years, and he has so comported himself by his 
life and character, arid the impress he has made 
upon the world, as to add to the value and ef- 
ficiencv of the church. 

J. BRIGHAM MORGAN. 

The name of Morgan has ever been an his- 
toric one in American affairs, and during the 
opening years of the Twentieth Century the 
name of J. Pierpont Morgan is universally rec- 
ognized as the leading financial mind of the 
civilized world, and it is perhaps today oftener 



on the lips of the public than any other name. 
It is of Welsh extraction, but is now common 
in England, Ireland, Canada and in the United 
States, as well as in Wales. John and Ann 
(Gillett) Morgan, the parents of the gentleman 
whose name stands at the head of this article, 
were, however, natives of England, and for a 
more exhaustive mention of their lives the 
reader can consult the sketch of John G. Mor- 
gan, to be found on other pages of this work. 

Joshua Brigham Morgan was born on De- 
cember 19, 1S62, at Mill Creek, Utah, and, 
after passing his early life in the assistance of 
his parents on the homestead, upon attaining 
manhood in 1883, he came to his present loca- 
tion at La Belle as a pioneer, before irrigating 
canals were built, before any well-formed set- 
tlement had obtruded itself upon the wide ex- 
panse of sagebrush growth that extended al- 
most unbroken for many miles, and his first act 
was to secure a homestead, the next being to 
bring it into a productive state through the in- 
troduction of water, and by clearing and fenc- 
ing the fields. Selling twenty acres of his land, 
he is now the owner of a fertile ranch of 100 
acres, which is not only a productive farm, but 
the center of stockraising operations of impor- 
tance. In irrigation he has been especially 
active, assisting in the construction and 
maintenance of the La Belle Canal, being 
the president of the company for. some 
years, while in 1898 he "took out" a 
private canal. A Democrat in politics, he 
has never aspired to office, but in the 
Mormon church, with which he has affili- 
ated from childhood, he was ordained in suc- 
cession a deacon and an elder. 

The marriage of Mr. Morgan and Miss 
Lucy J. Taylor was consummated on Decem- 
ber 15. 1886, her parents being George and 
Lucy (Hughes) Taylor, natives of England, 
who were among the early Mormon arrivals in 
the Salt Lake region, making their way across 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3*9 



the plains with slow ox teams and being 
months on the journey. They settled at Mill 
Creek, Utah, where for the long period of forty 
years the father conducted blacksmithing, then 
retiring to become a farmer. Mrs. Morgan 
has been prominently connected with the activ- 
ities of the church, and has held, with great 
benefit to all concerned, the offices of president 
of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement 
Association, counsellor in the Primary Asso- 
ciation and a member of the Relief Corps, 
being also an efficient teacher. 

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan are 
Eugene, born on March 25, 1888 ; George E., 
bom on March 15, 1890, died when one year 
old; Lucy L., born on October 12, 1891 ; Elva 
May, born on August 7, 1893 ; Minnie M., 
born on November 7, 1895; Elwin T., born on 
August 8, 1897; Alice A., born on June 23, 
1899; Edith P., born on November 9, 1901. 

SAMSON NATE. 

One of the pioneer settlers of Idaho, where 
he has resided since 1865, from the first being 
most active in advancing the cause of civiliza- 
tion, Samson Nate, of Dingle, Bear Lake 
county, is extensively and most favorably 
known to all old-timers of southeastern Idaho, 
He came here when the lands lay untouched 
for many a mile of distance, when the wildest 
and rudest form of existence was here pre- 
sented, wild beast and wilder Indians often 
threatening the solitary traveler and settler, 
and he' has seen a most wonderful change. 
From a land of stunted sagebrush vegetation 
and natural meadows, he has seen an empire of 
civilization arise, and in place of the few reso- 
lute settlers, who dared the rugged pioneer con- 
ditions, and 1 were often in need of the neces- 
saries of life, he now sees a happy collection of 
settlements, towns and cities, pregnant with 
wealth and lavish with the luxuries of life. It 



will gratify a large number of people who have 
known this sturdy old pioneer long and well to 
see a suitable record of him in this volume. 

Mr. Nate was born in England on May 8, 
1833, a son of Richard and Sarah (New!) Nate, 
his ancestors having been residents of his native 
land as far back as he can trace the lineage. 
Educated in the national schools of England 
until he was eighteen years of age, then begin- 
ning life as a farmer, he soon came under the 
ministrations of missionaries of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who were 
faithfully presenting their ideas of truth to the 
English people. He joined their number, and/ 
on January 7, 1852, after marrying Miss Mary 
A. Cottrell, who died at Dingle on November 
7, 1896,. they sailed for America, continuing 
their journey to Utah, arriving at Salt Lake 
City on October 12th of the same year. Mr. 
Nate resided in Utah until October 27, 1864, 
when he became a pioneer of Idaho, locating 
first at Paris, but in 1875 removing to what 
was then Pegleg Island,- but now bearing the 
more stately name of Dingle Valley. 

Here they located on an admirably situated 
portion of land, commenced the task of devel- 
opment and began the raising of stock in a 
modest but cumulative way. The various mem- 
bers of the family worked together in har- 
mony, and, as a result of their united and pros- 
perous efforts year after year, their home be- 
came more attractive and the estate more valu- 
able, until now Mr. Nate is the fortunate owner 
of a valuable ranch of 165 acres, on which he 
conducts diversified farming, mostly, however, 
raising grain and hay, having recently dis- 
posed of his large cattle interests. 

Mr. Nate, although sixty-nine years of age, 
is strong, vigorous and healthy, until recently 
attending to much of the work of his farm. 
He has always been a willing and active par- 
ticipator in public events, is at present water- 
master of the Pegleg Island Canal Co., and, in 



320 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



the trying days of the early period, he was one 
of the guards of the settlement in even- Indian 
war of early Utah days. He has been placed 
in many public offices of the township and 
county, discharging these duties with fidelity 
and to the approval of the people, and one of 
the strongest proofs of the excellent nature o c 
this man is the fact that he has been a coun- 
sellor of the bishop of his ward for the long 
period of thirty-six years. On February 17, 
1864, occurred the marriage of Mr. Nate with 
Miss Elizabeth Cornell, a native of Enfield, 
Middlesex, England, and Mr. Nate is the father 
of seventeen children, of which number four- 
teen are now living. 

GUSTAVUS NELSON. 

A type of the bright, active and sagacious 
ranchmen of his section of the country, honor- 
able in his dealings and of good character and 
habits, Gustavus Nelson, a well-to-do farmer 
and stockman of Bingham county, Idaho, 
where his decidedly attractive farm of 269 
acres is located in close proximity to Basalt, 
was born in Sweden, on May II, 1840, being 
a son of Nels P. and Christina Pierson, natives 
of Sweden, where the father, who was born on 
November 5, 1810, passed his entire life and 
died on September 24, 1902, surviving his wife, 
who departed his life some years ago. 

Gustavus Nelson attained his manhood in 
his native country, being brought up to habits 
of thrift and industry, and to know the value 
of labor, and. in 1883, he severed the ties bind- 
ing him to his native land, coming to the 
United States and direct to Idaho, where he 
was employed for the first twelve years in the 
Salmon River country as a rider on the range. 
In 1886 he came to Bingham county and locat- 
ed 'the nucleus of his present place, by home- 
steading 160 acres of land, to which he has 
from time to time added, and he is now pros- 



perously engaged in both general farming and 
in the raising of stock, his endeavors and 
earnest industry having met with a bountiful 
reward. 

By his thrift and persevering labor he has 
developed from a state of nature a most beau- 
tiful place, on which he has built a residence 
of modern design and architecture, having all 
the comforts and some of the luxuries unusual 
to this country, and also suitable barns, corrals, 
etc., being considered one of the representaive 
men of the county, and a citizen who is always 
read} 7 to encourage any movement looking 
toward the prosperitv of his section, his efforts 
being an object lesson from which many have 
derived essential benefit. With commendable 
public spirit, while forwarding his own inter- 
ests he has endeavored in every way to build up 
the community of his home. 

Deeply interested in all public matters of a 
local nature, his political associations are with 
the Democratic political party, in which he is 
extensively known, while his success as a stock- 
man, and his fine herds, have made him well 
and favorably known throughout his county. 
His lines are laid in pleasant places and he 
surely has no reason to regret that he became 
one of the pioneers of this section of the Great 
West. His marriage occurred in Sweden, on 
October 17, 1863, when he wedded Miss Ingri 
Johnson, also a native of Sweden, who re- 
mained in her native land several years after 
Mr. Nelson had come to this country to provide 
a home for them. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have 
six children, whose names are Amanda. Fred, 
John, Carl. Axel and Emma. 

ALMA NEWMAN. 

Among the representative stockgrowers and 
farmers of Bingham county, we must surely 
take into consideration the gentleman whose 
name heads this review, whose home ranch and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



321 



center of business activities is located near 
Leorin postoffice, twelve miles north- 
east of the thriving town of Idaho Falls. Mr. 
Newman was born on December 3, 1866, at 
Peoa, Summit county, Utah, and thus is a 
truly Western man, having known no other 
land or people during the days of his life. He 
is a son of John and Sarah (Marchant) New- 
man, his father being a native of England, 
coming when he was about the age of fourteen 
years to Utah, maintaining his residence at Salt 
Lake City for a time, ultimately, however, set- 
tling in Summit county, where he was engaged 
in agricultural operations until 1895, when he 
changed his residence to Bingham count}', 
making his home about twelve miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls. 

Here he has devoted his endeavors to the 
raising and care of a superior stock of cattle 
and also to general farming, being a man of 
sterling worth, standing high in the estimation 
of the community, and also being a member of 
the Mormon church, in which he has held the 
offices of elder and high priest. He was a son 
of Joseph Newman, who came from England 
to Salt Lake City with one of the 1 early Mor- 
mon companies and there spent the remainder 
of his days. The mother of Alma Newman, 
who was a daughter of Abraham and Amelia 
(Johnson) Marchant, still maintains her resi • 
dence in Bingham county, having accomplished 
sixty-one years of useful existence. Her father 
also came from England to Utah, where for 
many years he followed merchandising. Mr. 
Newman has six brothers living and four sis- 
ters, he being the fifth one of the family. 

Mr. Newman's youth and early manhood 
were passed in Summit county, Utah, where he 
received the general allowance of education 
given to lads of his place and period, also be- 
coming familiar, by practice and experience 
with various kinds of business employments, 
so that when at the age of twenty-one years he 



assumed the responsibilities of life, he was 
fully competent to engage successfully in farm- 
ing operations, in successful stockraising or in 
any other branch of industrial development. It 
was in 1887 that he availed himself of the mag- 
nificent opportunities offered in this part of the 
state for engaging in the raising of stock and 
also in developing a home on government land 
in Bingham county, whither he came and filed 
upon the homestead of which we have hereto- 
fore spoken. From that time to the present he 
has been an active, energetic and useful mem- 
ber of the community, interested in the prob- 
lem of irrigation, being identified with the Har- 
rison Irrigating Canal system. In church rela-. 
tions he is now one of the Seventies in the Mor- 
mon church of this section. 

Mr. Newman was married on March 8, 
1893, with Miss Ellen Nelson, also a native of 
Utah, being a daughter of Nels Nelson, a Mor- 
mon emigrant from Sweden, who at the pres- 
ent time maintains his residence in Shelton 
ward, Bingham county, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. 
Nelson's family consists of five children : Alma 
L., Clarence, Mabel, Iva and James P. In all 
the relations of social, business and church ac- 
tivity, this estimable family occupies an envi- 
able position and their home is a center where 
hospitality is liberally dispensed to their many 
friends and acquaintances. 

COLUMBUS NICKERSON. 

One of the important missions of a compi- 
lation of this character is the permanent preser- 
vation of all that may be ascertained concerning 
the progressive and aggressive men whose la- 
bors as pioneers have paved the way for the 
advance of civilization, and among the very 
earliest to locate in the Teton Basin, where he 
was a pioneer stockman, was Columbus Nick- 
erson of this article. He was born at Gallatin, 
Mo., on March 26, 1858, the son of George and 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Jane (Ashur) Nickerson. The first American 
families of the name came in the earliest set- 
tlement of New England to Barnstable county. 
Mass., locating on Cape Cod, from whence 
their numerous descendants have gone to all 
parts of the United States and Canada. George 
Nickerson was born and reared in Ohio, from 
which state he emigrated to Davis county. Mo., 
and there, after an uneventful but industrious 
life, his earthly existence terminated in 1876 at 
the age of fifty-six years. His wife, who was 
the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Ashur, 
and was born in Missouri, died in her native 
state in 1894, at an advanced age, the mother 
of six children, of whom Columbus was next 
to the eldest. 

Mr. Nickerson acquired his early education 
at the Missouri schools in the vicinity of his 
birthplace, thereafter, at the age of fourteen 
years, making his initial operations in 
business for himself in the state of Iowa, re- 
turning, however, in a short time to Missouri, 
where he occupied himself with agricultural 
pursuits until he attained his majority, when 
his adventurous spirit led him to pass a year in 
mining operations at the Black Hills. His next 
definite stopping place was Miles City, Mont., 
which was his home for a year, being connected 
with railroad operations on the Northern Pa- 
cific Railroad. In 188 1 he came to Teton Ba- 
sin, then an almost unpeopled wilderness, only 
three families having taken up their abode, and 
here Mr. Nickerson went into cattleraising op- 
erations of cumulative importance, and was a 
leading stockman, conducting a prosperous 
business with marked skill and discrimination, 
and enjoying the reputation of being one of the 
representative cattle men of all of this section 
of Idaho and Wyoming, becoming known 10 
many people, who generally became his per- 
sonal friends. 

In 1898 he changed the character of his 
business by disposing of his cattle and embark- 



ing in a sheep industry which he later disposed 
of and established himself in the saloon busi- 
ness at his present location at Victor, Bingham 
count}', Idaho. In political relations Mr. Nick- 
erson is in hearty accord with the Republican 
political party, and is earnest and forceful in 
his advocacy of its principles. 

In 1878 Mr. Nickerson married Miss Anna 
Pritchard, of Missouri, who died in the Teto" 
Basin in 1S91 at the age of thirty years, being 
the mother of three children, Maud, born on 
March 27, 1882, died at the age of eighteen 
years; Joseph, born on July 5, 1884. deceased 
at seven years, and Clara, born on September 7. 
1885. The present marriage of Mr. Nicker- 
son with Miss Lillie Osbume, of Iowa, oc- 
curred on June 5, 1892. Mr. Nickerson takes 
great interest in any and all matters which in 
his judgment tend to advance the weal of the 
people and is public-spirited in a high degree, 
being among the first to contribute to objects of 
improvement. Personally he is well liked and 
has a large number of strong personal friends. 

HYRUM NIELSON. 

The Church of Latter Day Saints, one of 
the most remarkable organizations of men in 
all human history, is ever zealously sending 
missionaries to all parts of the world as de- 
vout and as determined as those of the Roman 
church who landed in Kent. England, with Au- 
gustin, or those who lifted up the cross in early 
American days in the Mississippi Valley. Their 
persistent and earnest labors annually bring 
hundreds to what they consider a better spirii- 
ual condition, and while doing this they Open 
the way for many to obtain a better opportun- 
ity for advancement in material lines, by bring- 
ing them to a knowledge of Western life and 
the possession of a home in this section of the 
New World, where only thrift and industry 
are needed to build up an estate of magnitude 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



323 



and value, and to secure a career in public life 
commensurate with their abilities. 

Among the number who in the early part 
of 186 1 received this double baptism of benefit 
were Andrew and Dorothea (Poulson) Nielson, 
of Denmark, who soon afterward emigrated 
from their childhood home to the United States, 
and, after crossing the plains to Utah, they 
took up their residence at the town of Milton, 
in Morgan county, where they arrived in the au- 
tumn of 186 1, and where they secured land 
and engaged in farming. The paternal grand- 
parents of Mr. Nielson were Niels and Maren 
Nielson, and the maternal ones were Hans and 
Karen Poulson. There they made their pioneer 
home and reared their family, faithfully work- 
ing to make their land productive, to increase 
its value and to develop a home which would 
provide for them and theirs the comforts of cul- 
tivated life and leave a lasting monument to 
their industry, fidelity and skill. 

There the mother died in 1867, and in that 
section of the state the father, having turned his 
own farm over to one of his sons, is now pass- 
ing the evening of his days at the fireside of 
one of his daughters, safely anchored in that 
haven of life where the storms beat not, a se- 
rene, a cheerful, a hale and vigorous old age, 
he having now attained eighty-five years of use- 
ful existence. There also, on the paternal 
homestead, Hyrum Nielson was born, his life 
beginning on December 10, 1861. He was 
reared and educated at Milton, and, after leav- 
ing school, worked on the farm with his fa- 
ther until the early months of 1879, when he 
came to Preston and worked for Charles J. 
Spongberg, who is now his father-in-law, and 
is mentioned more at length elsewhere in this 
volume. 

At that time Mr. Spongberg owned the land 
on which Mr. and Mrs. Nielson now live. The 
year after he came to this part of the state our 
subject took up a quarter-section of land one 



mile and a half from where he now resides and, 
entering married life at that time, he at once 
settled on the land and began farming, which 
he continued to conduct until the fall of i88q, 
when he built a dwelling and other buildings 
on his present ranch and made that his home. 
He is extensively engaged in farming and in 
raising stock and takes a leading part in all 
works of improvement for the benefit of the 
neighborhood. He is interested in some 700 
acres of good arable land, to the development 
and improvement of which he has devoted his 
energies for years with great enterprise and the 
most gratifying success. 

The principal stock industry of Mr. Nielson 
is the raising of sheep, which he handles in 
large numbers, being careful in every way' to 
keep the standard of his product high and all 
of his output in excellent condition. He is a 
heavy stockholder in the Cub River and Worm 
Creek Canal Co., which takes its water from 
the Franklin River, about ten miles distant, and 
has its ditches all over the flat. He is also 
largely interested in the Preston, Mink Creek 
and Riverdal© Canal Co., whose canals are sup- 
plied from Mink Creek, so named on account of 
the large number of minks found along its 
banks in the early days. He was one of the 
promoters and first stockholders in each of these 
enterprises which cover with their canals and 
ditches the whole country north and west of 
Preston in their range, and have been of im- 
mense value in irrigating and fructifying the 
land. 

Mr. Nielson has also been very active in 
church work, giving a great deal of time to the 
advancement of the Sunday schools. In 1897 
he was sent on a two-years mission to Nor- 
way, and on his return in 1899, or soon after- 
ward, he was made first counsellor to the presi- 
dent of the Oneida stake, an office which he is 
still holding, In politics he is an ardent Dem- 
ocrat, and has all of his mature life been zeal- 



3^4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



ous and efficient in the service of his party. He 
was married on December 31, 1880, at Salt 
Lake City, to Miss H. Christiana Spongberg, 
a native of Franklin, Idaho, and daughter of 
Charles J. and Jacobina (Funk) Spongberg, 
and they have four children, Olive D., Teresa 
A., H. Carl and Gwen. 

Mr. Nielson is one of the representative 
and serviceable citizens of his community, and 
has great influence in its affairs in almost every 
line of active effort. His wisdom and breadth 
of view are generally admitted, while his enter- 
prise and diligence make them very effective 
in stimulating others as well as in accomplish- 
ing specific results of value to the whole people 
in this part of the state. He stands high in 
the respect and good will of his fellows and 
has honestly and faithfully labored for their ad- 
vantage. 

LEANDER NORTON. 

The historian never tires of recounting the 
story of the redemption of America's primitive 
wilderness and its reduction to fruitfulness un- 
der the vigorous hand of the hardy pioneer. 
Westward, always westward, moves the army 
of conquering forces and ever bows before them 
the century-crowned monarchs of the forest. 
At first, to the New Englander, the last domain 
of western New York was the far frontier, then 
came Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois as 
the points indicating the extent of civilization ; 
then the Mississippi stopped the progress for a 
day, then the surging tides of the ever-increas- 
ing immigration swept over all portions of the 
land, crossing in succession the plains of Kan- 
sas, of Nebraska and of that wonderful creation 
of ancient geographies, the Great American 
Desert, until now all lands between the mighty 
oceans have been laid under tribute to man's 
necessity and are contributing generously in 
response to his command. The frontier has 
ceased to exist, and this pioneering spirit of un- 



rest, that has so vigorously reached forward 
generation after generation, seems largely to 
dwell in certain families, who are pioneers bv 
nature and pioneers in actual life. These re- 
flections come to mind in considering the life 
of Leander Norton, one of the pioneer settlers 
of Bingham county. Idaho, where he located 
five miles northeast of Idaho Falls in the early 
days of the settlement and when Idaho Falls 
was merely a point designated as the Eagle 
Rock. 

The Nortons are an ancient English family, 
and its members were pioneers of the 
Massachusetts Colony in the days when 
the footprints of civilization were very 
infrequent on its shores, and later their 
descendants moved westward, culminating 
in the long journey of James and Nancy (Ham- 
mer) Norton, the parents of our subject, who, 
for the same reason that brought the English 
emigrants to American shores, crossed the 
plains to Utah that they might there have the 
freedom to worship God according to the dic- 
tates of their conscience, without fear of the 
harm or molestation that came to the church 
in the East, and now we find that their son, 
born in Utah, is still a pioneer, for in the new 
and undeveloped country of Idaho, where he 
has made his home, he has displayed the same 
sterling qualities which were manifested by his 
ancestors, and is now reaping the rewards of 
his diligent labors in transforming the wilder- 
ness into cultivated fields, and is prosperously 
located as a farmer and a stockman, being a 
representative citizen of the community and one 
who is held in universal respect. 

Mr. Norton was diligently occupied in la- 
bors on the home farm and at school until, at 
the age of nineteen, he assumed the responsibil- 
ity of life for himself by working in and around 
different mining camps of Utah. Following 
tit is for a period of years he determined to 
avail himself of the untold possibilities await- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



ing the diligent hand in Bingham county, 
Idaho, and, at the age of twenty-seven, he there 
made his home and there he has since resided, 
being one of its representative agriculturists 
and a prosperous stockman. In the Mormon 
church he is an elder, while in political circles 
he is known as a positive force in the ranks of 
the Republican party, being public-spirited,' ac- 
tive and alert in all local matters giving prom- 
ise of benefiting the community and the state. 
On January i, 1886, Mr. Norton and Miss 
Martha Cooper, a daughter of Isaac and Mary 
(Stewart) Cooper, were united in matrimony. 
For further mention of her parents the reader 
is referred to the sketch of R. W. Norton, else- 
where in this volume. 

The family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Norton 
is rounded out and completed by the following 
children : Urania, Charles, Surilda, Mary and 
Greta. Mr. Norton is a man of untiring indus- 
try, preferring an active life, fully given to his 
business activities, and in the sphere of his op- 
erations he is rendering good service to his 
section, no duty of a good citizen being ever 
ignored or neglected, and he is one of the en- 
terprising citizens of his county who has met 
every duty in a manful and masterful way, and 
enjoys in a marked degree the respect and es- 
teem of his fellow men. 

RUFUS W. NORTON. 

In the development of the state of Idaho, 
it is a remarkable fact that much of the activitv 
here demonstrated in reducing the wilderness 
to civilization has been accomplished by ac- 
tive, energetic and progressive young men of 
the period, who have been born, reared and edu- 
cated in the land of the West, and consequently 
are well fitted to grapple with the difficulties 
and consequent obstacles which are here en- 
countered. In giving the names of some of the 
representative men who have wrought well and 

18- 



usefully in making Bingham county a center of 
civilization, must be mentioned Rums W. Nor- 
ton, the energetic and prosperous rancher, 
whose homestead of 160 acres is located five 
miles northeast of Idaho Falls, where he is en- 
gaged in stockraising operations which prom- 
ise to ultimately become of great scope and im- 
portance. 

Mr. Norton was born on August 14, 1853, 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, the son of James W. 
and Nancy (Hammer) Norton, the father being 
a native of Ohio, who learned the trade of stone 
mason and early became one of the converts of 
the Mormon faith, and was one of the earliest 
to take part in the migration to Utah, in the 
year of 1848 crossing the plains with ox teams 
from Missouri, after his arrival there following 
his trade in Utah, thereafter going to Califor- 
nia, where he was prosperously engaged in min- 
ing, later coming to Bingham count)', Idaho, 
in 1892, where the activities of a long life were 
quieted by death at an advanced age. He was 
a man of decided religious views and promi- 
nence in his church, being - one of the Seventies 
at the time of his death. The mother was a na- 
tive of Indiana, a daughter of Austin and 
Nancy (Elston) Hamsen, and for the particu- 
lars of their life and ancestral history we re- 
fer the reader to their biographical sketches 
found elsewhere in this volume. 

R. W. Norton acquired a good practical ed- 
ucation at the excellent schools of Utah until he 
was sixteen years of age, when he commenced 
life for himself by engaging in railroad con- 
struction work, continuing at that and at vari- 
ous other employments until 1884, when, com- 
ing to Bingham county, he secured from the 
government his present homestead, and from 
that time to the present he has been diligently 
occupied with the various duties appertaining to 
ranching and stockraising, developing a valu- 
able property suitably improved, and with a 
comfortable and commodious residence, barns, 



326 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE. 



corrals, etc. In political creed Mr. Norton is 
a Republican, taking active part in the various 
campaigns of his party and loyally supporting 
its candidates, never, however, caring for of- 
fice or political distinction for himself, while 
in religious belief he adheres to the faith of his 
parents and belongs to the Mormon church. 

On December 22, 1880, Mr. Norton wedded 
Miss Cynthia Cooper, born at American Forks, 
Utah, as a daughter of Isaac and Mary E. 
(Stewart) Cooper, her father being a native of 
Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1807. 
When in mature life he joined the Mormon 
church, crossed the plains to Utah and located 
at American Forks, where he remained as an in- 
fluential and prominent citizen, exercising 
great influence among the people, being a pres- 
ident of the Seventies of the Mormon church, 
and dying in 1883. He was a son of Robert 
and Mary (March) Cooper, who passed their 
entire lives in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Mary (Stew- 
art) Cooper was a native of Rhode Island, and 
her marriage occurred in Utah, in 1847, tne 
very first year of the Mormon hegira. 

Mr. and Mrs. Norton have had nine chil- 
dren, of whom two, Rufus I. and Nancy, are 
deceased and buried in Iona cemetery, while the 
survivors are Martha, Lenora, Robert, Etta, 
Violet, Rose and Effie. Throughout the com- 
munity in which they reside the Norton fam- 
ily is highly esteemed and the progressive en- 
terprise and sterling integrity of Mr. Norton 
has won the confidence of all. 

NELS NORD. 

It requires an unusual amount of energy 
and courage to leave the home and friends of 
childhood, fond associations and the attractions 
of one's native land and make a journey of 
thousands of miles across a wild waste of wa- 
ters, continuing it over thousands of miles of 
equally as wild areas of dreary, desolate, out- 



stretching plains, going to an unknown land to 
encounter no one knows what of hardships and 
privations. Yet this was the bold procedure 
of Nels Nord, now an independent farmer of 
Bingham county, Idaho, who left his native 
land in Sweden, where he was born on Novem- 
ber 10, 1862, in the southern part of this little 
kingdom, being a son of Olaf and Edla ( Nel- 
son) Nord. His father was born in 1832 and 
is still living on the little Swedish farm, where 
he has been in agriculture for many years, it 
being also the place where his father, John 
Nord, also passed his life as a farmer. The 
mother is still living, having attained nearly the 
allotted age of the Psalmist, three-score years 
and ten. Of her nine children Nels was the 
eldest. 

Nels Nord attended the excellent govern- 
ment schools of Sweden until he was nineteen 
years of age, and he must have possessed at 
that youthful age great decision of character 
and a thought fulness and maturity of action far 
beyond his years, for by that time he had dili- 
gently canvassed the situation of a life in his 
native land and contrasted it with the possibil- 
ities which he had had so glowingly presented 
to him of the land of the Western continent. 
Deciding in favor of emigration, after cross- 
ing the Atlantic his first stopping place was at 
Chicago, 111., whence, after a few days' time, 
he traveled on to Minnesota, and in that state 
he was for eighteen months engaged in farm- 
ing and in factory work, thence proceeding to 
Belknap, Mont., on the line of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad, from which town, after a per- 
iod of four or five months, he went westward to 
the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Hence, after 
passing the winter, he traveled to California, 
and was for two years there engag'ed in various 
occupations and, returning to Oregon, in less 
than a year he proceeded to Washington, and. 
after some months passed there, returning to 
Montana, from which state he came to Idaho, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



3 2 7 



remaining a few months at the Nacolis Moun- 
tains. 

After this long course of wandering, he 
became, in 1888, one of the early pioneers of 
Idaho Falls, locating near by the young city on 
the site of his present estate, which is situated 
three miles southeast of Idaho Falls, there pre- 
empting 160 acres of finely located land, which, 
by his industry, he has developed into a produc- 
tive ranch, giving it, however, for most of the 
time only a general supervision, as it is placed 
in the hands of tenants. Since his location 
here Mr. Nord has made numerous journeys 
to various parts of the country and has made 
one trip to his native land, where, on April 25, 
1900, occurred his marriage with Miss Han- 
nah Anderson, a daughter of Anders Anderson, 
a lifetime resident of Sweden, where he is still 
residing. Mr. and Mrs. Nord are highly es- 
teemed in the circle of their numerous friends 
and are the parents of three children, Amy 
Irene, Olga Eveline and Henry Allen. 

Mr. Nord has demonstrated that it is for 
the best interests of the young men of the 
crowded populations of European cities to emi- 
grate and to seek localities in the Great West 
of America, where positions of individual ad- 
vancement and the procuring of valuable homes 
are abundant everywhere and where a few 
years of industrious application will make them 
independent in wealth and possessors of fine 
estates. 

JABUS NOWLIN. 

Prominently identified with the agricultural 
industries of Bingham county, Idaho, and tak- 
ing a special interest in the development of 
what promises to be one of the most valuable 
of the natural resources of the state, which is 
under the care, discrimination and earnest ef- 
forts of such horticulturists as Mr. Nowlin, 
fast attaining a position of importance and the 
source of great revenue, the subject of this 



review, Jabus Nowlin, is a native of Salt Lake 
City, Utah, where he was born on August 1 1 , 
1848, a son of Jabus and Amanda (Thomas ) 
Nowlin, his father being a native of Tennessee, 
who as a young man under legal age moved to 
Mississippi, and there for about eight years 
conducted agricultural operations ; then becom- 
ing interested and identified with the Church 
of Latter Day Saints, he crossed the plains with 
the Mormon battalion in 1847 and landed in 
Salt Lake City in July of that year. 

Here he remained for two years, then be- 
came the first settler of Provo City, where 
he resided for some years, .meeting the usual 
experiences of a pioneer of that place and per- 
iod, Indian alarms and their hostile manifesta- 
tions being frequent occurrences, and during 
this period he took a decided and active part 
against the Indians in the Walker and other 
Indian wars. His next residence was at Pay- 
son, Utah, which place was his home for three 
years, thence removing to South Utah for a 
two-years residence, then migrating to Nephi 
City, where he resided for over thirty years, 
conducting prosperous stockraising operations. 
In 1889 he removed to Idaho and there made 
his permanent home at the present residence 
of his son, Jabus, where he died in 1892, at 
the age of seventy-two years, being deeply 
mourned and his loss regretted by a large cir- 
cle of friends. His services in the Indian wars 
were peculiarly valuable, and were mentioned 
by his superior officers in their dispatches as 
being very efficient. 

His father was Payton Nowlin, also a na- 
tive of Tennessee, where he resided until he was 
fifty years of age, when he removed to Missis- 
sippi, and there joined the Mormon church. Be- 
ing accompanied by his son and older brothers, 
Bryan and James Billingsly, he went up the 
Mississippi River to Nauvoo and had an inter- 
view with the elders and was comforted. Brig- 
ham Young gave him a commission to return 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BAXXOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



home and preach the gospel to his father and 
mother, which being accomplished in their con- 
version, they all returned to Nauvoo and from 
there engaged to enter on the first immigra- 
tion to Utah. His wife was a native of Indi- 
ana, a daughter of Henry Thomas, her mother 
dying when she was very young, while she is 
still residing at Wellsville, Cache county. Utah, 
hale and hearty in body and mind for a person 
of her years, and of her three children all are 
living. Her father survived her mother fully 
twenty years. 

Tabus Nowlin passed his early years prin- 
cipally in Washingtpn county and Nephi City, 
Utah, having not more than one year in school, 
from the age of fourteen years being engaged 
in work with his father, practically doing a 
man's work. He was a good son, and took 
the burden from his father, and was a quiet and 
useful citizen of Nephi for over thirty years, 
taking, as did his father, a prominent part in 
the campaigns of the Republican party, while 
in matters of public interest they were positive 
factors in aiding even-thing that tended for the 
good of the community, being most valuable 
citizens, held by all in high esteem. 

In 1889 he changed his residence from 
Utah to Idaho, coming to Bingham county, 
where, first taking up a homestead of 160 acres, 
he has added to his estate by locating each of 
his boys upon a good homestead, the entire es- 
tate now consisting of over 1,000 acres of land, 
eligibly situated, highly improved, with a resi- 
dence of modern design and structure, having 
suitable surroundings for the successful carry- 
ing out of the departments of industrial activi- 
ties to which they have devoted their attention. 
Mr. Nowlin is a member of the Republican 
central committee of Bingham county, and his 
opinions and advice have great weight with his 
political associates. 

On January 23, 1871, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Nowlin with Miss Maria Tollev, a 



native of England, where she was born on Oc- 
tober 1. 1851, and which country she left at the 
age of four years. Her parents were William 
F. and Sarah (Warner) Tollev, and for further 
details of their eventful lives the reader is re- 
ferred to the memoir of Mr. Tulle}', appearing 
on other pages of this volume. The Jabus 
Nowlin family has contained eleven children. 
of whom but eight are now living. Jabus, 
Thomas, Ernest. Thirsv M.. now the wife of 
Joseph Jordan ; Sarah A., who married William 
Davis; Charles F., married Alva McFarlin; 
George W. : and Katie J., born on August 1. 
1890; these three are deceased. Emma E.. 
Henry R. and John F. The eldest son. Jabus, 
born November 16, 1871. married with Cor- 
linda Bybee, and has three living children. 
Sylpha, Minnie and Leland. and Lester and Lil- 
lian, deceased. Thomas, born August 18. 1893, 
married with Martha E. Davis, a daughter of 
Jonathan Davis; their children are Effie J.. 
Thomas F. and an infant, deceased. Ernest, 
born April 16. 1875. married with Emma S. 
Olson ; they have one child, Ray L. Thirsy 
(Mrs. Joseph Jordan), born December 3. 1877. 
has two children, Elizabeth and Charles L. 
Mrs. Sarah Davis, born November 25. 1S79. 
has four children: Maria J., George W.. Ivan 
J. and an infant. The births of the three de- 
ceased children were as follows : Emma E., 
January 25, 1885; Henry R., May 2. 1886; 
John F.. March 10. 1888. Concluding this 
brief testimonial to the honored and useful citi- 
zen who is the subject of this review, we will 
say that there is no citizen of the county or in 
the range of his acquaintance that stands in 
higher esteem in the regards and opinions of 
the general populace, or who has more or 
stronger friends in every relation of life, his 
actions being based upon the principles of eter- 
nal rectitude and unswerving integrity, coupled 
with a generous Christian charity and a broad 
humanitarian spirit. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



329 



FREDERICK OLSEN. 

One of the stalwart and hard-working sons 
of Denmark, who. through his connection with 
the early pioneer life, hardships and privations 
of the early days of the settlement of the. fer- 
tile valley of the Snake River, is well entitled 
to all the distinction attaching to the terms pio- 
neer and old-timer, Frederick Olsen of this re- 
view is comfortably located as its owner on a 
highly improved farm of 200 acres, the same 
being the tract two miles northwest of Rigb}% 
on which he located in 1886. 

He was born at Skyelrkur, Denmark, on 
July 7, 1848, the son of Ole Jensen and Marie 
Holgersen, both of whose ancestors have re- 
sided in Denmark for many years, the father 
dying in February, 1900, and the mother in 
1878 in their native land. There Frederick re- 
ceived an excellent education in his seven-years 
attendance at the government schools and from 
private tutors, learning then the shoemaker's 
trade and following that vocation quite profit- 
ably, on August 30, 1874, marrying with Miss 
Wilhemine Hansen, a daughter of Heinrich 
and Johanna Marie (Brokkebush) Hansen, her 
father's birth occurring on October 31, 1814, 
and his death on April 9, 1901. Her mother 
was born on October 5, 1807, and died on Oc- 
tober 20, 1888. The father did blacksmithing 
work both in Denmark and after coming to 
Utah in 1877. 

In 1877 Mr. Olsen acquired a knowledge of 
the Mormon religion and feeling that it Was 
sent from God allied himself with its follow- 
ers, and as a result, in 1878, emigrated to cast 
in his lot with the grand assemblage of the 
Latter Day Saints in Utah, and made his home 
at Bear River City in Box Elder county, where 
he remained for three years as a farmer and 
man of all work, thence removing to Clarkson, 
where he purchased five acres of land and re- 
sided five years, when, learning of the valuable 



lands lying waste and unproductive in the Up- 
per valley of the Snake River of Idaho, he 
came hither in 1886 and used his homestead 
right on his present estate, which, from a wild, 
desolate, sagebrush tract, he has brought, by 
his well-directed energies and painstaking cul- 
ture, into one of the attractive farms of the re- 
gion, having a fine young orchard of one-half 
an acre just commenced bearing. 

He broke the first road to Idaho Falls, was 
one of the very earliest to record his land in 
the land office, and, as was the common lot of 
all the early settlers, he had a hard struggle 
with adverse conditions and perverse nature be- 
fore he attained independence and comfort. 
When he made his location there were but 
twelve families in the little pioneer community 
where he had determined to dwell. In the 
bringing of water the early settlers had to la- 
bor hard in conjunction with all others to con- 
struct irrigation canals _and ditches, and Mr. 
Olsen was busy in this work from the first, 
working on all the early canals, and he is now 
a stockholder in and a director of the Rigby 
Irrigating Canal Co. He stands well in the 
estimation of the people of his community as a 
man of strict probity, diligent industry and 
generous public character, while in the church 
of his adherency he has worthily filled the of- 
fice of elder. 

An intelligent family of children has come 
to bless and cheer the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Olsen, the most of whom are grown to use- 
ful maturity, their names being William, born 
in Denmark, on July 14, 1869 : James P., born 
in Denmark, on January 27, 1875, died Janu- 
ary 20, 1879 ; Hdlge Frederick, born February 
21, 1877; Mary W., born November 12, 1879; 
Olaf J., born December 23, 1881 ; Anna E., 
born February 17, 1883; George L., born Jan- 
uary 11, 1886; Henry, born July 2, 1888; Wal- 
demar, born June 26. 1891 ; Carl C, born 
April 6, 1893. 



33° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



C. J. OWENS. 

The ancestors of the subject of this sketch 
have for long years been residents of the rug- 
ged country of Wales, Great Britain, and there 
his father, C Owens, was born in 1828 and 
was reared and educated as a farmer, in which 
honorable vocation he was diligently engaged 
until he became a convert to the doc- 
trines of the Mormon church, and joined 
a company, which, coming to the United 
States in 1849, crossed the wide plains 
to Utah, where he remained at Salt Lake City 
until 1853, satisfied to undergo the privations 
of the long wearisome journey and the hard- 
ships incident to the development of a home in 
the most unbroken wilderness, that he might 
enjoy the freedom of conscience and the privi- 
lege of worshiping God in his own way and 
manner unmolested. From Salt Lake Citv the 
family removed to Brigham City where they 
resided for about ten years, still pursuing agri- 
culture, thence coming to Logan, then to Hv- 
rum. Cache Valley, being industrious!)' en- 
gaged in agricultural operations until 1884, 
when, coming to Bingham county, Idaho, he 
was one of the first four white persons to pitch 
his camp in Sand Creek Valley and as a pio- 
neer of pioneers he there located a homestead 
on section No. 7, eight miles northeast of Idaho 
Falls, and there he was a resident until the time 
of his death, which occurred in 1898; and by 
his industry, economy and indefatigable efforts 
he attained success in every department of life 
in which he was engaged and was one of the 
best types of a self-made man. His sterling 
nature endeared him to his associates and he 
was honored with the offices of elder and bish- 
op's counsellor, and, at the time of his death 
was holding the position of high priest. He 
is acquainted with all of this section of the 
state, and his services are often asked to locate 
new settlers. His father, who also started to 



make a home in the new land of Utah, died of 
cholera while en route on the Missouri River. 
The mother of Mr. Owens was a daughter 
of Thomas Jones, a native of Wales, and 
she emigrated to Utah in 1856. there becom- 
ing a useful member of society until her death, 
being the mother of four children, the subject 
of this review being the eldest. 

C. J. Owens was educated and reared in 
L'tah in the full knowledge of all that apper- 
tains to the successful application of agricul- 
tural pursuits as applicable to Western hus- 
bandry, becoming a farmer at his maturity and 
majority in Bear Lake count}-. Idaho, which 
was the scene of his operations for three years, 
thence removing to Cache Valley, Utah, where 
he was identified with the construction of rail- 
roads for a time, thence coming with his father 
to Bingham county, where he also located on 
a homestead on section No. 6. situated 
eight miles northeast of Idaho Falls, and to its 
development and cultivation and to the over- 
seeing of his herds of horses, cattle and sheep 
he has since devoted the major portion of his 
time. In addition to this homestead he is the 
owner of fine real-estate at Iona, where, be- 
sides several lots, he possesses forty acres of 
land. 

In politics Mr. Owens is distinctively iden- 
tified with the Democratic party, but al- 
though giving of his time and energies to the 
success of its principles and campaigns, he has 
absolutely no desire for place or position, pre- 
ferring to devote his energies to the practical 
duties of his business affairs. He has taken 
great part in the building up of this section of 
the country and in locating many families 
where they could provide themselves with pro- 
ductive homes, and stands high in the esteem 
of all who know him. and holding the position 
of high priest in the Mormon church. In 
the year 1875 occurred the interesting cere- 
monies which made Miss Mary Stephens and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



33 1 



Mr. Owens one in matrimony. Mrs. Owens 
was a native of England and a daughter of 
Isaac Stephens, who emigrated from his native 
land in England to Utah, settling on a farm and 
being one of the quiet, industrious agricultural 
representatives of the Mormon church until his 
death. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Frances Wooley, also a native of England like 
her husband, is buried at Hyrum. Mr. and 
Mrs. Owens have had eight children, namely: 
Cadwallader, George T., Alma, Mary E.. Wil- 
liam, Charles, Frances and Owen. 

JOHN C. OLSEN. 

Conspicuous among the younger class of the 
pioneers of Bear Lake county. Idaho, where 
he has resided since his first year of existence, 
and being a true son of the West, inasmuch as 
his birth occurred in Farmington, Utah, on Au- 
gust 26, 1869, John Christian Olsen, who is 
now discharging the official responsibilities and 
duties of sheriff of Bear Lake county, is well 
worthy of recognition in a compilation of this 
character, whose mission it is to record for per- 
manent preservation the accomplishments and 
achievements of the progressive men of today. 
Mr. Olsen's ancestors from time immemor- 
ial have been industrious and useful citizens of 
the little Kingdom of Denmark, Europe, where 
his parents, Christian and Mary Burgetta 
(Christensen) Olsen, were born and resided un- 
til becoming converts to the belief of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
when, to enjoy the full advantages of church 
privileges, they severed all ties binding them to 
the land of their nativity, making the long and 
perilous journey over ocean and. plains to Utah 
in 1862, thereafter residing in Farmington un- 
til 1870, when the family home was transferred 
to Ovid, Idaho, where the diligent industry of 
the parents, assisted by the willing co-operation 
of the older members of their family of twenty 



children, developed a productive ranch of 300 
acres, on which eight of their ten surviving 
children now reside, the mother dying on De- 
cember 27, 1885, the father surviving her un- 
til September 12, 1898, when he too closed his 
eyes in his last slumber. The names of the 
children now living are, Mary J., John C, 
Christian, Christine, Lizzie, Kate, James, Han- 
nah, Orson and Emily. 

Sheriff Olsen early acquired a vigorous body 
and a clear, mental grasp of things in the pio- 
neer labors incident to ranch life and received 
an excellent practical education in the district 
schools of Ovid and at the Church School, at 
Paris. Idaho, at the close of his school days 
throwing all of the 'intense vigor of his strong 
personality into ranching, soon attaining and 
thereafter maintaining the position of a leader 
of his class, becoming a typical stockman of the 
state, being now the president of the Live Stock 
Association of the towns of Ovid, Liberty, 
Sharon, Berne and Noman. He has a ranch' 
of eighty acres, which, from the high charac- 
ter of its improvements and its great develop- 
ment could easily be called a model for the 
young agriculturist to follow in striving to ob- 
tain the best results in ranching. Large crops 
of excellent hay are here produced and it is the 
headquarters of stockraising operations of 
scope and importance. 

Irrigation was the first problem Mr. Olsen 
was called to solve and to this question he has 
given much thought and careful attention, serv- 
ing as the watermaster of the Ovid Irrigation 
Canal Co., in which he is largely financially in- 
terested. He is also a stockholder in the Pio- 
neer Creamery of Paris, of which he was one of 
the inceptors. He has ever been a liberal con- 
tributor of- time and money to all measures for 
the public welfare and by his cordial and win 
ning manners, his clear and distinct concep- 
tions of the rights and duties of all and his 
quick comprehension of the duties appertaining 



33 2 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



to the positions of public trust, he has won and 
retained a great popularity and an extended ac- 
quaintance with the leading men of the county 
and state, and it was but a natural sequence to 
his very capable service as a deputy sheriff for 
one term that he should be placed in nomina- 
tion as its candidate for sheriff in 1902. This 
was done, and he received a highly gratifying 
endorsement at the succeeding election, being 
chosen sheriff by a complimentary majority 
and he is now in the incumbency of that office, 
and winning praises from the people by his 
manner of discharging the duties connected 
therewith. 

Mr. Olsen has done highly appreciated serv- 
ice for his church. At the time of his father's 
last illness he was recalled from a mission in 
Missouri, and he has since most capably filled 
numerous minor offices, being the popular pres- 
ident of the Young Men's Mutual Improve- 
ment Association and superintendent of the 
Sunday school at the present writing. He is en- 
titled to great credit, as the high position he 
holds in the esteem of the public has been ob- 
tained by his own force of character, his moral 
rectitude and his sterling qualities of head and 
heart. 

WILLIAM OWEN. 

For nearly half a century has Mr. Owen 
been connected with the varied interests of 
life in this section of the Great West, having 
been born on August 5, 1854. at Ogden, Utah, 
a son of James and Sariah (Rawson) Owen, 
natives of Pennsylvania and Illinois, who emi- 
grated from their native states to L T tah in 
1848, being among the large number of fami- 
lies who fled from persecution in the East 
to the wild section of sage-covered land which 
now constitutes the wealthy, enterprising and 
productive state of Utah, the father preced- 
ing them in 1847 m company with the Mor- 
mon battalion that undertook the danoerous 



journey. They were people of high character, 
strictly moral and deeply religious principles, 
and in their life at Ogden they were regarded 
among the leading people of the colony and 
venerated for their numerous good qualities. 
The father for a number of years has been 
a high counsellor of the Mormon church and 
is still maintaining his home at Ogden. 
although retired from active life. The mother 
was a daughter of Horace and Elizabeth 
Rawson. of English ancestry, while* the father 
can trace his ancestry back through many 
generations of American life to the sturdy lit- 
tle country of Wales. 

A faithful son and a diligent laborer at 
every employment that came to hand from 
the days of his boyhood, since he attained the 
age of twenty-three years William Owen, of 
this review, has been known as one of the 
most reliable and enterprising business men 
of his section of the state. Each successive 
year has brightened his reputation in business 
circles, and in every relation of life he has 
manifested the characteristics of loyal charity 
and devotion to principle. His interest in 
matters pertaining to the public welfare has 
made him a most valued citizen, and not to 
be acquainted with him indicates that the per- 
son is himself unknown in Bingham county, 
for among its representative men he holds a 
marked prestige. The records of the leading 
men of the county would be decidedly in- 
complete without the story of his life, for his 
name is engraved high on the roll of those 
whose efforts, energy and directive power 
have advanced the intellectual, material and 
religious interests of the community. 

In 1885 Mr. Owen made his residence in 
Oneida county, now Bingham county, Idaho, 
taking up a homestead, which after years of 
intelligent and discriminating labor he has 
developed into one of the finest homes to be 
found in many a mile of distance. It is very 




*ta. 



%^^0*ts^~* 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



335 



pleasantly located immediately adjoining the 
village of Amnion, and consists of 160 acres 
of extremely'fertile soil. Upon this fine estate 
he has erected an elegant residence of modern 
style and construction, fitted up with all of 
those improvements that the civilization of 
the Twentieth Century considers the indispen- 
sable attachments of the model home. Further 
than this, the place is attractive from the 
number and variety of its outbuildings, which 
are constructed and arranged in. perfect con- 
formity with the demands of the agricultural 
labors of which this farmstead is the head- 
quarters. 

Nor are his interests confined to his ranch, 
as a productive limekiln is in steady oper- 
ation upon his property, and he is also ex- 
tensively engaged in stockraising, being one 
of the leaders in this industrial activity. In 
politics Mr. Owen gives his hearty support 
to, the Republican party, and he has ever 
been active in the promotion of its cause, 
manifesting a lively interest in everything that 
concerns the welfare of his county, of which 
he is an honored pioneer. In 1900 he was 
nominated as a Republican candidate for 
county commissioner, and, receiving a highly 
complimentary vote at the polls, he was tri- 
umphantly elected. This office he filled to 
'the full satisfaction of the people and in 1902 
he was elected to the state Legislature by a 
handsome majority. On January 1, 1877. at 
Ogden, Utah, occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Owen and Miss Elizabeth Rawson, who was 
born at Ogden on March 9, i860, a daugh- 
ter of Arthur M. and Margaret Rawson, who 
were natives of Illinois. 

A prominent member of the Church of 
Latter Day Saints, Mr. Owen holds the office 
of high counsellor, while he has been for 
years an influential trustee of the schools of 
his ward, being also one of the pioneer lead- 
ers in the construction of the irrigating 



canals of the county. In this connection we 
would remark as an instance of his interest 
in educational affairs that he assisted in the 
• construction of the schoolhouse of his neigh- 
borhood before he built his home. Mr. and 
Mrs. Owen have eleven children: Mary, now 
Mrs. O. B. Calkins, of Gray's Lake Valley; 
William F. ; Arthur; Heber J.; Daniel B. ; 
Margaret J. ; Leroy ; Lenora ; Lucinda and 
Eugene. 

Mr. Owen numbers many warm personal 
friends in all the circles of his acquaintance 
and they are very numerously scattered 
throughout this state and Utah. He has ever 
been a prominent factor in the promotion of 
those enterprises that have tended to build up 
the community and county and to advance 
local prosperity. His business methods have 
ever conformed to the strictest ethics of com- 
mercial life, and he is held in the highest 
esteem by all classes, being stanch in his 
friendship, just and charitable in his judg- 
ment of his fellowmen and possessing un- 
bounded hospitality. 

DAVID OSBORN, Jr. 

The origin of the Osborn family in Amer- 
ica is lost in the mists surrounding the early 
settlement of Virginia, where representatives of 
this branch came to the Old Dominion from 
England and were large tobacco planters and 
prominent personages in the civil affairs of the 
Colonial epoch and the name often appears in 
ancient chronicles of deeds of chivalry and ser- 
vice to the state. The great-grandfather of Da- 
vid Osborn, Jr., of Rexburg, Idaho, John Os- 
born, was a reputable planter and fanner of 
Greenbrier county, Va., and served also in of- 
ficial capacities of scope and importance, while 
his son, David, native to and educated in the 
same county, was a gallant defender of the 
Colonial cause of the American Revolution. 



336 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



He died in 1808 at about fifty years of age, 
leaving four children, Elizabeth, John, William 
and David, born unto his marriage with Alary 
Harrah, a daughter of Charles and Mary 
(Tincher) Harrah. In religious creed the fam- 
ily adhered to the Campbellite Baptists. David 
Osborn, Sr., the grandson of the original John, 
was born on March 31, 1807, on the ancestral 
acres in Greenbrier county, which, tradition 
says, has been occupied by the family from the 
early days of settlement. The widowed 
mother took part in the emigration of a large 
number of the Osborn family, herself and chil- 
dren being accompanied by her mother, who 
was also a widow, their new home being made 
on Locust Creek in Fleming county, Ky., in the 
early years of the life of her youngest son Da- 
vid. The Virginian house and e'state of the 
father was rented until the children were ail 
of age and then sold. Originally a Baptist, in 
her later life the mother, a noble. God-fearing 
woman, married with Leonard Wines, a Pres- 
byterian, with which church she was after- 
wards connected. In 18 19 the family removed 
from Montgomery county, Ky., where they had 
lived for a few years, to Monroe county, Ind., 
in the heart of an almost' primeval forest. 
There was but little land under cultivation, few 
mills and but little grain. The little corn they 
raised was ground in a handmill and schools 
were few and the winter terms, the only ones 
the boys could attend, extremely short. The 
mother, however, encouraged them to home 
study with the result that they became more 
than usually well educated. In 182 1 or 182? 
the family began to develop a farm in the heav- 
ily timbered lands of Owen county, beech, ma- 
ple, -poplar and walnut trees covering the 
ground. Here, before he was sixteen, David 
was placed in charge of a school of about twen- 
ty-five scholars, which he successfullv taught 
and then returned to Kentucky and added to 
his educational equipment by over a vear's 



attendance at good schools, thereafter going 
back to Indiana and teaching again successfully 
for several years. In 1826 the family removed 
to Greene county and here young David had a 
truly pioneer experience. One morning he 
heard a hog squeal and ran to its as- 
sistance, finding a black bear holding it 
down and trying to devour it. He 
shouted to frighten the bear when it 
left its feast to pursue the intruder, who. be- 
ing weaponless, ran and sprang up a small sap- 
ling. The bear followed and climbed the tree, 
catching hold of a foot and letting go fell to 
the ground, thinking to bring young Osborn 
down with it. The shoe came off, but the bear 
again came up the tree, took sharp hold with its 
teeth of the other knee, then the calf of the leg, 
then tore deep wounds in the other thigh, tear- 
ing the flesh and muscles badly in each in- 
stance. The bear finally returned to its feast 
and the wounded youth returned home so faint 
from loss of blood as to collapse before reaching 
the house and for six weeks was confined in- 
doors. On April 10, 1828. he married Miss 
Cynthia Butler, a daughter of Thomas and 
Polly Butler, and settled down to farming and 
teaching, being prospered in his labors, and 
having several children born to their marriage. 
He had for years deep thoughts on religious 
subjects, but at this period l>egan to feel 
strongly affected in this direction, finding no 
comfort in various churches represented in his 
neighborhood except the Camphellites. with 
which himself and wife affiliated, until the truth 
came to them in July, 1835, m the preaching 
of George M. Hinkley, a Mormon missionary. 
From that time, during many eventful years, 
these good people were devout and earnest 
members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. 
receiving the persecutions of its enemies and 
suffering in bodies and in loss of property by 
their desire to worship God according to the 
dictates of their consciences. In 1835 Air. Os- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



337 



born went to Missouri, bought land in Clay 
count}-, sold his Indiana farm and farm prop- 
erty on his return, and in 1836 started for his 
new Western home. Here he settled in Dayis 
county, ten miles north of Far West, as the 
Mormon colony was located there and in Cald- 
well county, and began the development of a 
good farm, raising fine crops on the land he 
brought into subjection. In 1838 commenced 
those terrible persecutions that brought such 
a stain on the fair name of the state. During 
this year he was made a prisoner, after some 
weeks later being released after having signed 
a stipulation, as did all the Mormons, that he 
would leave Davis county that fall and the state 
the next spring. On his return to his home 
he found it vacated, his hogs slaughtered and 
much valuable property destroyed. His fam- 
ily, in terror of expected death, were camping 
out in the snow and frost in a secluded place in 
the woods, exposed to the inclement weather, 
from the effects of which his young son,- Wil- 
liam, not long after expired in his arms. The 
family was not allowed to occupy their com- 
fortable house during the winter, but Mr. Os- 
born built a rude cabin four miles distant, just 
over the Davis county line, while, if he wished 
to procure any of the crops he had raised, he 
was forced to go after them, like a thief, under 
the cover of darkness. In 1839 the family re-- 
moved to Hancock county, 111., where, in 1841, 
he again started a home and remained until 
1S46, then started on the great trail toward the 
new home of the church in the Rocky Moun- 
tains. The comfortable Illinois farm he had 
started he sold for "an old cloth coat and a few 
pounds of pork by throwing in a good table and 
some articles too heavy to take" and, with a lit- 
tle gray mare and an old spavined horse and a 
cow and a steer yoked together and hitched to 
a wagon, they started westward, following the 
'track made b)' the pioneers. It would be very 
interesting to follow in detail the journey west- 



ward, with its accompanying trials, but space 
forbids. They stopped at Garden Grove, Iowa, 
for the winter, Mr. Osborn going sixty miles 
away and teaching school, and in 1847 came to 
Council Bluffs, where he remained until 1852, 
when he had acquired a suitable outfit to cross 
the plains and started Zionward. His devoted 
wife, who had so loyally and uncomplainingly 
shared his sorrows, failed on the journey, dy- 
ing on July 2, 1852, at Grand Island, on the 
Platte River, 250 miles west of the Missouri. 
A rude coffin of poles was hastily made to pro- 
tect the wornout remains from the ravages of 
the wolves and here her body was buried 10 
await the resurrection. The surviving mem- 
bers of the family reached Salt Lake on Sep- 
tember 12, 1852, located for a year at Center- 
ville, Utah, where the father taught school for 
the winter, then moved to East Weber, where 
he devoted himself to agriculture. In i860 he 
became a pioneer settler of Hyrum, in the 
Cache Valley, where was his home until his 
death on June 12, 1893. He survived his sec- 
ond wife, Mrs. Lena Larsen, whom he married 
on February 14, 1857, at Salt Lake. A ster- 
ling man of strong religious faith, he stood 
high in the favor of the church, rising to be the 
'president of the High Priests' Quorum of 
Cache county. He had ten children, Thomas 
J.; Mary E. (Mrs. D. M. Perkins); Elizabeth 
(Mrs. J. Hammer); William died at thirty 
months of age; David, Jr. ; Nancy M. (Mrs. H. 
Neilson) ; John died in infancy ; Rebecca (Mrs. 
R. Thorn) ; Harriet J. (Mrs. J. M. Davis) ; Cyn- 
thia A. died young. 

David Osborn, Jr., the popular landlord and 
useful citizen of Rexburg, Idaho, as a lad suf- 
fered all the sad effects of the unjust persecu- 
tions with his father's family, who were ren- 
dered poor and driven from place to place by 
religious bigotry, under the capable instruction 
of his father, however, receiving much more 
education than fell to the lot of most of the 



338 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



children of his association. He drove a team of 
three yokes of oxen and one yoke of cows all 
the way along the emigrants' trail to Utah, 
walking all the distance. In Utah he remained 
with his father until December 25, 1857, when 
occurred his marriage with Miss Nancy 
Thorn, a daughter of Ashal and Sarah (Lester) 
Thorn. She was born in Crawford county. 
Pa., on October 24, 1841, and accompanied her 
parents to Utah in 1853, being a resident of 
Box Elder county at the time of her marriage. 
For three years after marriage Mr. Osborn was 
employed on the farm of his eldest brother, then 
moved to the Cache Valley and took a home- 
stead in the new settlement at Hyrum, where he 
erected the first residence of the place. In June. 
1 861, his brother, Thomas J., died at East 
Weber, and at the request of the familv, Mr. 
Osborn removed .thither for one year to take 
charge of the farm and settle the estate. He 
then bought a farm at Three Mile Creek in 
Box Elder county, near Mrs. Osborn's people, 
and conducted this until July, 1865, when he 
moved to the new settlement of Montpelier, in 
Bear Lake count}-, Idaho, where for seven suc- 
cessive years he gave his entire time to vigor- 
ous farming operations, during all of this time 
harvesting not a crop of value, on account of 
frosts and the depredations of grasshoppers. 
He persevered, however, and in time his dili- 
gent industry was rewarded by the possession 
of a fine farm and a pleasant home on the main 
street of the city. During his life in Montpelier 
he was the very capable postmaster for four- 
teen years, a popular justice, of the peace for 
sixteen years, and he was the efficient captain 
of the Montpelier company of the Nauvoo Le- 
gion during the entire life of that organization. 
An active man of business for twelve vears 
while making his home in Bear Lake county, 
Mr. Osborn was engaged in filling large con- 
tracts of railroad construction, building the line 
from Nampa to Boise and for years being em- 



ployed in charge of highly important and es- 
pecially difficult work at various points on the 
Oregon Short Line. Xot having land enough 
to supply his sons with labor, in 1895 he sold 
his Bear Lake possessions, and, in .the spring 
of 1896, came to Rexburg. his present resi- 
dence. Here he purchased land with a partially 
finished house upon it. which he enlarged and 
completed for hotel puqioses, opening the Os- 
.born House, which has proved a very popular 
place of entertainment, in the spring of 1900. 
Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have been most diligent 
and effective in the care of their guests and 
their house has a well-earned reputation. Mr. 
Osborn is a strong Republican and is serving 
his third term of justice of the peace 
in this city, having also been a mem- 
ber of the city council for two terms, 
also holding the important offices of su- 
pervisor and watermaster with conceded 
ability. In church relations he has been 
very active and useful. While living at Three 
Mile Creek he was the president of the local 
branch of Brigham City ward, and at Mont- 
pelier he was a highly serviceable counsellor 
to five bishops, holding the office until his re- 
moval to Rexburg; in this city he has been a 
member of the High Council of the stake for 
three years. In all his relations, civil, religious 
and social, he has received the encomiums of 
his associates for his faithfulness and ability, 
and won the friendship of the best citizens of 
the various communities where he has main- 
tained his residence. 

The children of this honored couple, with 
a brief record, concludes most fittingly this in- 
teresting sketch : David A., torn on Septem- 
ber 4, 1859, a rancher, resides in Lemhi county ; 
Cynthia A., born on June 6, 1861. married A. 
J. Bird and resides in Rexburg: Sarah Vianca. 
born February 1, 1863, married R. C. Young 
and died on January 18. 1892. leaving one 
child. David R. : Mary M.. Ixirn on January 14, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



339 



1865, married J. M. Phelps, and lives in Mont- 
pelier; Lydia J., born on March 12, 1867, re- 
sides in Rexburg; Nancy A., born on April 26, 
1S69, is also at the parental home; Margaret A., 
bom July 21, 1871, married H. E. Rigby and 
lives in Rexburg; Jefferson L., born October 
19, 1873, lives at Grantsville, Utah, and is a 
teacher; William W., born on February 14, 
1876, has filled a two-years mission in Ken- 
tucky, and is now at the Osborn House; John 
Richard, born November 18. 1877, at the pres- 
ent writing is filling a mission in British Co- 
lumbia ; Isaac Melvin, born on April 7, 1880, is 
teaching at Hibbard, Idaho; Glenn Milton, 
on January 1, 1887, is a student at Ricks Acad- 
emy. 

JAMES A. OWEN. 

Among the many men of youth, manhood 
and age in this portion of the state who have 
manifested marked qualities of industry, good 
judgment and surroundings in a manner that 
would bring success in all of their under- 
takings, by these attributes reflecting credit 
uoon that marvelous state which gave them 
birth and is a wonder in the history of modern 
civilization, we must mention James A. Owen, 
now a progressive farmer and stockman of 
Amnion, -Bingham county, Idaho, who has 

■ attained marked success in his efforts since 
locating here and has achieved it entirely 
through his own industry and determined ap- 
plication, having started with practically 
nothing in the way of financial resources, by 
his personal labor producing every dollar rep- 
resented in his fine homestead and all other 
forms of property which he now owns. 

James A. Owen was born at Ogden, 
Utah, on November 2, 1852, a son of James 
and Sarah (Rawson) Owen, natives of Penn- 
sylvania, James being one of the eldest of 

' their eight children, his parents having been 
among the earliest of the Mormon pioneers 



who crossed the plains with ox trains, slowly 
laboring to reach the land where their dis- 
tinctive religious opinions might be main- 
tained and sustained without fear of molesta- 
tion or hindrance. They were among the 
early settlers of Ogden, • where the father 
united the occupations of farming and con- 
ducting a tannery, being successful in his en- 
deavors and there still residing, for a long 
time holding the position of captain of the 
police of that thrifty town, and also ably sus- 
taining the office of high priest in the Mor- 
mon church. 

Mr. Owen could hardly have been any- 
thing but an industrious and law-abiding citi- 
zen with such parents as he possessed, , and 
from attaining manhood surrounded by such 
environments as were his. Educated in the 
excellent schools of Ogden, at the age of 
twenty years he commenced his independent 
action in life as a lineman for the Western 
Union Telegraph Co., thereafter passing 
more years in mining operations, then, in 
1885, coming to his present location, where he 
located on a homestead and engaged in farm- 
ing and stockraising operations which have at- 
tained scope and importance, his pains in the 
development of his home producing one of 
the model farms of this section, supplied with 
all of the necessities and conveniences and 
many of the luxuries of life. Mr. Owens was 
one of the originators and builders of the irri- 
gation canal, and takes a prominent and de- 
cided part in the public affairs of his county 
and state, and has been one of the pioneers in 
the activities of the dissemination of the doc- 
trines of the Church of Latter Day Saints, be- 
ing the superintendent of the Sunday school 
held in his district and now holding the very 
efficient position of elder in the church. 

Mr. Owen was married in Logan, Utah, on 
December 12, 1889, to Miss Rosa Eldingford, 
a native of London, England, a daughter of 



340 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Samuel and Eliza Eldingford, both of whom 
are representatives of ancient and respected 
English families who came to the United 
States in October, 1877. Mr. and Mrs. Owen 
are the parents of eleven children: Rosa, 
Olive. Lavina, May. Katie. Sara. Ada, Eve- 
lyn, Albert, Wilford, Leonard. Douglas and 
Charlotta Bell. Mr. Owen is a man of honor 
and integrity in all relations of life, and being 
progressive in his methods and public-spirited 
in his attitude, is known as a man of wide in- 
fluence and sound judgment, winning the es- 
teem and confidence of the entire community, 
where the family enjoys a distinguished pop- 
ularity, while in politics he gives his support 
to the Democratic party and its principles, 
though he has never sought public office. 

PARLEY P. PARKER. 

Among the progressive, intelligent and 
prosperous citizens of Fremont county must 
be numbered the subject of this review. Parley 
P. Parker, of near Rexburg. Idaho, who was 
born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 19. 
1857. one of the thirteen children born to his 
parents, Joshua and Drusilla (Hartley) Par- 
ker, natives respectively of New York and 
Pennsylvania, who in 1852 came as Latter 
Dav Saints to Utah and made their home in 
Salt Lake City. When twenty-three years of 
age Parley P. Parker, who had industriously 
availed himself of the superior educational 
advantages of his native city, engaged in busi- 
ness for himself in the handling of ores and 
bullion, continuing to be thus employed for 
four years. Thereafter, in 1883, he removed to 
Rexburg. where he took up a homestead claim 
of 160 acres immediately adjacent to the town- 
site, a portion of which was later laid out as 
"Parker's Addition," and in 1884 he brought 
his family to the new home in the sagebrush 
plains of the Upper Valley of the Snake River, 



and. after partially developing the homestead, 
in 1888 he acquired his present home estate as 
a tree claim and here his wide discrimination, 
original ideas and clear judgment have brought 
into existence one of the most attractwe prop- 
erties in the vicinity of his residence, the 
character of his improvements being such as 
to give a greatly added value to his estate and 
render it more than usually producth e. 

In 1898 he engaged in bee culture in con- 
nection with the diversified farming he had 
heretofore conducted, and his apiary now con- 
sists of forty hives, his reputation as a success- 
ful apiarist being widespread and his success 
complete in this line. In horticulture also 
he has manifested a knowledge of the basic 
principles underlying successful fruitraising, 
and he has a very promising orchard of 400 
well-selected fruit trees not yet come to bear- 
ing. He has ever been in full accord with the 
principles and policies of the Democratic po- 
litical party, has given earnest assistance and 
wise counsel in the management of the various 
local campaigns, and in 1898 he was elected as 
justice of the peace, serving for two years in 
this important office with the same fidelity, 
integrity and ability which have ever char- 
acterized his administrations of all trusts con- 
fided to him, wdiether of private or public 
character. Frank, generous and notably pub- 
lic-spirited, there is no one holding a higher 
place in the good graces of the community, 
while in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints he is efficientlv serving as an 
elder. 

At Salt Lake City. Utah, on July 12. 1877. 
was solemnized the marriage union of Miss 
Rhoda Lee and Mr. Parker, the bride being a 
daughter of Doctor Ezekiel and Fanny 
(Fisher) Lee. a lady of culture and fine social 
qualities, also one of a family of thirteen chil- 
dren. The family were originally residents of 
Michigan, from which thev early came to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



34i 



Utah, and the father was the first person to 
carry the mail from Salt Lake City eastward 
across the plains. Of this congenial marriage 
have been born the following named children : 
Fanny D., born March 24, 18S0, died Novem- 
ber 2j, 1 88 1 ; Parley P., born November 19, 
1881 ; Rhoda M., born November 1, 1883; 
Mabel A., born January 14, 1886; John L., 
born March 4, 1888; Martin V., born May 10. 
1890; George W., born May 1, 1892; Jess: 
"V., born July 9, 1894; Orvin M., born April 
5, 1896; Hugh Sampson and Admiral Dewey, 
twins, born July 12, 1898; Inez Vera, born 
September 9, 1901. 

SAMUEL C. PARKINSON. 

Samuel C. Parkinson, of Franklin, Idaho, 
who has done excellent work for the com- 
munity in helping to build homes, conduct 
good mercantile enterprises, raise the 
standard of stock in cattle, horses and sheep, 
and to spread the influence and beneficent 
activities of the great church to which he be- 
longs, is almost a product of the community, 
having come here with his parents to live when 
he was but seven years of age. He was born 
on February 23, 1853, at St. Louis, Mo., the 
son of Samuel R. and Arabella (Chandler) 
Parkinson, extended mention of whom appears 
elsewhere in this work. When he was but a 
year old his parents crossed the plains from 
his native city to Utah and settled at Kays- 
ville, and six years later they came with the 
first body of settlers to what is now the town 
of Franklin in Oneida county, Idaho. 

There the subject of this writing grew to 
manhood and has since made his home. He 
received his first school instruction in the lit- 
tle log schoolhcuse which his father helped to 
build in 1861, the first building erected for ed- 
ucational purposes within the limits of the 
present state of Idaho, and when he was six- 



teen years old he >vas sent to Salt Lake Citv 
to learn the carpenter's trade. After an ap- 
prenticeship of two years he returned to 
Franklin and worked there at the trade for a 
time, but not liking that sort of employment, 
he returned to the paternal farm and for a few- 
months was occupied with its duties. Within 
the same year, 1871, he went to freighting be- 
tween Corinne, Utah, and Montana points, 
daring great danger, for the Indians were 
troublesome, and enduring great hardships, 
for frequently the weather was bad, supplies 
were scarce and the toil incident to the busi- 
ness very hard. 

Mr. Parkinson was engaged in this haz- 
ardous occupation at the time of the In- 
dian uprising which culminated in the Cus- 
ter massacre in 1876, and continued to pursue 
it until 1882. He then accepted a place as 
purchasing agent for the Cooperative Store 
Co., of Franklin, but gave it up after a short 
tenure, and, in company with his brothers, 
started a meat market in the town, which he 
managed until 1886. At that time, wishing 
for a larger field, he also engaged in the stock 
business, still continuing to manage the meat 
market, however, until 1890. He was the first 
stockman to breed thoroughbred cattle in 
this country, purchasing a small herd of Hol- 
steins about 1885, later introducing the Dur- 
ham stock, and was also the introducer of 
thoroughbred horses in this section of the 
county, bringing in a valuable imported Nor- 
man stallion about 1888, and two years later 
purchasing at Topeka, Kans., and bringing to 
Franklin, an imported horse of thoroughbred 
Englishshire stock. Since that time to the 
present he has kept in pace with the demands 
for improved breeds, introducing to his neigh- 
borhood many valuable and costly animals, 
including jacks, for he is paying attention to 
the raising of mules. He was a firm believer 
in the best stock, and by his example and his 



3-P 



rROGRESSll'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



efforts greatly raised the standard throughout 
the whole region. 

His wisdom is fully sustained by the con- 
dition of his own stock, and by the extent and 
renown of his business, he being considered 
tiie most successful and progressive stock- 
breeder in this part of the country. In 1889 
be added the raising of sheep to his stock 
industry, and be has made a great success in 
that line also. His residence is a little west of 
Franklin, and is the homestead on which he 
located in 1876. and which he has occupied 
continuously since that time. On this fertile 
and attractive place he has a fine modern 
dwelling, beautifully situated in a large 
grove of trees, and commanding a compre- 
hensive view of the surrounding country. It 
is a model rural home, one of the most ad- 
mired places in the southern part of Oneida 
county. It was a favorite resort of the Indians 
and during Mr. Parkinson's earlier occupancy 
thev used to make themselves very much at 
home. 

Mr. Parkinson also has land in different 
parts of the county on which his stock ranges, 
his holdings amounting to some 800 acres. 
His success is alike beneficial to the commun- 
ity and creditable to himself, for its advant- 
ages flow out generously all around him, and 
it is the direct result of his own enterprise, 
thrift and business capacity. In politics he is 
a stanch Republican, but he has always de- 
clined office, except in a representative ca- 
pacity, having consented at times to go as a 
delegate to the state conventions of his party. 
To the educational interests of the commun- 
ity he has given special attention, manifesting 
a breadth of view and energetic diligence in 
advancing them and in increasing the volume 
and efficiency of the forces that have them in 
charge ; and in church matters he has also 
been an active and zealous worker. 

On December 9, 1873, Mr. Parkinson was 



joined in marriage with Miss Mary Ann 
Hobbs, the ceremony being performed at Salt 
Lake City. She is a native of England and 
a daughter of Charles and Mary A. (Emms) 
Hobbs, of that country, both parents being es- 
teemed pioneers of Franklin, where they set- 
tled in 1 86 1 and still make their home. The 
Parkinson household comprises thirteen chil- 
dren, all but one of whom are living. They 
are Xessy Estella (Mrs. George Hobbs), 
Edith A. (who died in her second year), Sam- 
uel \\\, Mary. Albert 11.. Leonard. Theresa. 
Raymond H.. Annetta, Bernice H., Rowland 
H, Myrtle and Roma. A number of these 
children are college graduates and all hive 
received and are receiving their education in 
the public schools of Franklin, the Oneid:i 
Stake Academy at Preston, the Brigham 
Young Academy at Logan, Utah, and the 
State Agricultural College, also at Logan. 
They promise in their turn to worthily main- 
tain the high standing of the present genera- 
tion of the family. 

Mr. Parkinson has been an elder and a 
member of the Council of Seventy in the 
church, and is now a high priest and a high 
counsellor of the Oneida stake. In 1885 he 
performed a mission in the Southern states, 
and has also been on missions in all sections 
of the Pacific states and has also efficiently 
worked with his brother William in organiza- 
tion duties. He is one of the leading- men of 
southern Idaho in business and church circles, 
in agricultural and stock industries, and in the 
possession of all the attributes of elevated cit- 
izenship. 

DAVID H. PARK. 

Born on August 26, 1856, at Lehi, Utah, 

in one of the most productive of the many 
fertile sections of the state of L T tah, Mr. 
1 lavid H. Park, now of La Belle, Fremont 
county, Idaho, has from childhood been con- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



343 



nected with the agricultural and stockraising 
industries of the intermountain portion of the 
Great West, and is a leading farmer of the 
community where for so many years he has 
made his home. His parents were Samuel and 
Jean (Harvey) Park, natives of the pic- 
turesque old town of Killburny, Scotland, 
whence they emigrated in 1853 to obtain a 
home in the new land of the Mormon Zion, 
crossing the plains with Capt. Gil Grier's ox 
train company one year before the installa- 
tion of the handcart brigade. After one year's 
residence at Salt Lake City they worked for 
Bishop Evans at Lehi, thereafter removing to 
Plain City, where the father aided in erecting 
the first cabin of the town and remained three 
years, then locating on a homestead at Weber, 
after this .returning to> Salt Lake for three 
years and then establishing a home at Skull 
Valley, where was the home of the family for 
twenty-five years, thence removing to Tooele, 
where the father, who was born on August 14, 
1828, died 011 May 28, 1898, and the mother, 
born in 1832,' still resides at seventy-two years 
of age. 

The first individual industry pursued by 
Mr.' Park of this review was riding the range, 
and in this " employment he continued for 
twenty-five consecutive years at Skull Val- 
ley. Tintic and Rush Valley, Utah, becoming 
one of the most expert riders in the region 
of his operations. Coming to the Snake River 
Valley in 1885, in May he located on a place 
above La Belle, but four years since came 
into possession of his present homestead, 
where he is successfully engaged in the farm- 
ing business, having also a small band of su- 
perior cattle of the Durham breed, his ability 
and prosperity in agriculture causing him to 
be numbered among the leading farmers of 
the Upper Valley. 

He has ever been greatly interested in all 
local matters of import to the people, in the 



early days aiding in the construction of the 
La Belle irrigating canal, and in this con- 
nection we will state that in the pioneer days 
he was accustomed to haul wood to Eagle 
Rock, where it was exchanged for such ar- 
ticles of merchandise as were needed, flour, 
sugar, etc., while the meat used was largely 
that of the deer he killed and the fish he 
caught. He also engaged in rafting timber 
down the Snake River from the mountains for 
a number of years. In national, state and 
local politics Mr. Park takes an independent 
position, binding himself to no party alliances, 
but reserving to himself the right to dictate 
how his votes shall be given, while in the cir- 
cles of the Mormon church he has most ca- 
pably performed the duties connected with the 
offices of deacon and priest, being now in the 
incumbency of the latter position. 

On March 26, 1887, at Salt Lake City, 
Utah, were married David H. Park and Miss 
Lucy J. Scott, born at Mill Creek, Utah, on 
April 19, 1855, as a daughter of John and Mary 
(Pugh) Scott, the father coming from England 
and the mother from Scotland in 1859, 
crossing the plains with an ox team 
company and making their home there- 
after at Mill Creek, Salt Lake City, Melville 
and Cache Valley, where the father died in 
1898, at seventy-two years of age, the mother 
now residing in Salt Lake City, having attained 
to eighty-two years of age on November 
10, 1903. John Scott was a man of fine form 
and physical prowess and was distinguished 
for holding the highly honorary position of 
bodyguard to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and 
for a full account the reader is referred to 
Bancroft's History of Utah. Ten children 
have come to the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Park from this marriage. Samuel H., born 
December 25, 1877; Lucy V., born Septem- 
ber 3, 1879; Marvin S., born January 26, 
1882, died April 24, 1895; Mary J., born 



344 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



March 23, 1884; Agnes J., born June 4, 1886; 
Hazel E., born Augfust 22. r«88: Myrtle S., 
born June 16, 1890; George A., born June 1, 
1892; Peter R., born August 2, 1894; Joseph, 
born May 9. 1898. 

SAMUEL R. PARKINSON. 

Having passed the age of three score 
years and ten, the term of life for men desig- 
nated by the Psalmist, Samuel R. Parkinson, 
of Franklin, Idaho, has retired from the active 
cares of business and is passing the calm and 
peaceful evening of his days in a well-earned 
leisure, amid the scenes which are hallowed by 
his labors and the pleasing retrospect of the 
wondrous way through which he has come to 
his present place in worldly comfort and in the 
respect and" regard of his fellow men. 
The story of his life, if told in full, would 
make a thrilling and suggestive narrative, im- 
pressively illustrating the wonderful possibil- 
ities of American manhood, the great oppor- 
tunities for energy and capacity to be found 
in this Western world, the boundless flexibil- 
ity and adaptiveness of the American mind, 
and the tremendous energy and power for ma- 
terial good of the Mormon church. The scope 
of these pages admits of only a brief outline of 
the salient features, but even these are preg- 
nant with meaning and inspiration. 

Mr. Parkinson is an Englishman by birth, 
whose useful life began at Barrowford, in Lan- 
cashire, on April 12, 1831. His parents were 
William and Charlotte (Rose) Parkinson, also 
natives of England and descendants of old 
families. When he was but six months old 
his father died, and when he reached the age 
of eight years his mother emigrated with her 
family from England to Sydney, New South 
Wales, making the voyage by way of the Cape 
of Good Hope. After a residence of three 
years in Australia they removed to Valpa- 



raiso, Chili, where they also remained three 
years, and where Samuel received all the edu- 
cation he was ever able to get in the. schools. 
In 1846 they sailed to England and again set- 
tled in Lancashire. There the lad of fifteen 
years secured employment at railroading until 
the family decided to come to America, which 
they did in the spring of 1848. arriving at New 
Orleans after an uneventful voyage, and from, 
there traveling up the Mississippi River to 
St. Louis. Soon after their arrival the mother 
died of the cholera, and the family concluded 
to remain in that city for a time. 

Samuel was converted to Mormonism. in 
St. Louis, but, although eager to join the 
great body of their church in their Western 
home, he remained with his step-father and 
the rest of the family until 1854; being en- 
gaged in contract work. In 1852 he was mar- 
ried on New Year's day to Miss Arabella A. 
Chandler, also a native of England, who had 
come to live with her sister at St. Louis, 
where she met Mr. Parkinson. Two years 
after their marriage they crossed the plains to 
Utah and settled at Kaysville. their onlv child 
at the time being Samuel C, who was born in 
St. Louis. They remained at Kaysville oc- 
cupied in farming until the spring of i860. 
Mr. Parkinson going in the winter of 1857-8 
to Echo Canyon, in the service of the Utah 
Militia in command of Capt. Daniel H. Wells. 
to meet the United States troops under Gen- 
eral Johnston. 

In the spring of i860 a company was or- 
ganized at Kaysville and Provo to colonize 
the Upper Cache Valley and seeing therein 
an opportunity to better his condition, he was 
one of the first to join the movement. The 
expedition passed up the valley by Logan, 
which was then a new settlement, and halted 
on the site of Franklin. The country was bar- 
ren and uninviting - , but they saw great pos- 
sibilities of fruitfulness in it. and concluded to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



345 



settle there. Other settlers soon arrived, a 
town organization was formed and the new 
municipal bantling they thus founded was 
named Franklin, in honor of Franklin D. 
Richards, one of the twelve apostles of the 
church. Their hopes in this enterprise have 
been fully realized, as is shown in the present 
prosperity and highly developed condition of 
this region. 

Peter Maughan, the president of the Cache 
Valley colony, embracing the settlement of Lo- 
gan, Wellsville, Richmond, Franklin and 
Mendon, came to the settlement in the first 
spring of its existence and completed its or- 
ganization, appointing Thomas Smart and 
Mr. Parkinson to superintend its affairs and 
to lay the land off into ten-acre farming and 
five-acre meadow lots. There was difficulty 
in making the surveys, for they were without 
a compass, and had to take the North star as 
their guide. But after the north and south 
line was, by this means, established, the sub- 
sequent measurements were easier to make. 
It was also necessary to build a fort, for the 
Indians were very troublesome, committing 
depredations continually, stealing horses and 
cattle and then compelling the settlers to buy 
them back in order to avoid greater trouble, 
not even hesitating to take human life when 
they thought they could escape the conse- 
quences. One morning two men started for 
the canyon for timber and were attacked by 
the savages. One escaped unhurt, but the 
other was badly wounded with arrows. The 
settlers pursued the Indians but were unable 
to overtake them, and Mr. Parkinson rode to 
Salt Lake City for a doctor to attend the 
wounded man. The physician was unable to 
dislodge one of the arrow heads that had pen- 
etrated the lung, but the man recovered and 
carried it in his body for twenty years there- 
after. 

The farming and meadow lots were par- 



celed out among the settlers by lot, no ad- 
vantage being given to an}', and all went to 
work vigorously to clear the land and get it 
ready for farming, to build canals and ditches 
for irrigating, to construct roads and bridges, 
and to do whatever else was required to start 
the settlement on its way. One of their early 
labors was the erection of a log schoolhouse. 
which was the first one erected on the soil of 
Idaho, and was also used as a meetinghouse. 
This was put up in the fall of i860 on a lot ad- 
joining Mr. Parkinson's city residence and 
now belonging to him. 

In 1862, in order to meet a pressing neces- 
sity of the people, Mr. Parkinson started a 
small store in which he handled general mer- 
chandise. In 1868 the Cooperative store was 
established, and a year later Mr. Parkinson 
closed his mercantile operations, was elected a 
director of the Cooperative store, of which, in 
the latter part of 1869, he took charge as man- 
ager. He held this position until 1873 when 
he with others was selected to go on a colo- 
nizing mission to Arizona. The expedition 
started too late in the season and it was post- 
poned a year on account of the scarcity of 
water in the southern country. They were 
ordered home and in the spring of. 1874 he 
again took charge of the Cooperative store and 
was its superintendent for a number of years 
longer. 

In June, 1877, he wa s tried in the United 
States district court on the charge of polygamy, 
then a tenet of the faith of the Mormon 
church. The trial was held at Malad City and 
he was acquitted through some technicality 
or deficiency of evidence. In 1877 he was made 
a counsellor to Bishop Hatch. In 1887 Mr. 
Parkinson was tried at Blackfoot under the" 
Federal law, for "unlawful cohabitation," in 
the United States district court, Justice 
Hayes presiding. This was at the time when 
the Edmunds-Tucker law was in force, and 



346 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OE BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



several hundred of the leading Mormon po- 
lygamists were haled before the courts, and 
imprisoned and fined if they did not accept the 
alternative tendered of abandoning their 
plural wives and children, "unlawful cohabi- 
tation" being the term given in the law to 
maintaining marriage relations with the 
plural wives. Air. Parkinson did not deny 
that he was living with his tbree wives, and 
stated to the court that ''while grass grew 
and water sought its level" he would remain 
true to his wives and children, and that, under 
no circumstances, would he ever abandon 
them or cease to provide for them, that the 
court had him in its power and could do what 
it pleased with him. as it was a matter of re- 
ligious duty with him. 

Justice Hayes told him that as he would 
not make the slightest concession there only 
remained to him to do his duty and pass 
sentence upon him of an imprisonment of six 
months and an added fine of $300. The justice, 
however, was so impressed by the sterling 
character of the accused that he told the mar- 
shal not to put Mr. Parkinson in jail, but to 
notify him when he was ready to take him to 
Boise and that Mr. Parkinson would be on 
hand to serve his sentence, and he also in- 
structed the warden of the prison not to cut 
off Mr. Parkinson's beard and to treat him 
kindly. He also asked the privilege of calling 
upon him when he came to Boise. Mr. Park- 
inson served his time of imprisonment, paid 
his fine and returned to Franklin, never more 
to be troubled on this charge. 

In 1879 Mr. Parkinson went east and 
brought out machinery for a woolen mill and 
started at Franklin the North Star Woolen 
Mills, the first established on Idaho soil. 
This enterprise belonged to the Cooperative 
Store Co., but our subject was at the head of 
it until 1889, when the Oneida Mercantile 
Union was formed, which purchased all the 



business concerns in the town. Previous to 
this, in association with Thomas Smart, he 
had started the first sawmill in this section of 
the country, and this they operated for a 
number of years. ■ 

When the Mercantile Union was organized 
the Cooperative Store Co. ceased to exist, but 
it wound up its affairs by paying its stock- 
holders $1.85 on every dollar they had in- 
vested, a gratifying evidence of the position it 
had won and the business it had done under 
his able management. He had considerable 
stock in the Mercantile Union, but. wishing to 
retire from the commercial pursuits, he re- 
signed as manager of the woolen mill, and 
thenceforth devoted his attention to farming 
and raising sheep. He carried on his sheep 
business until the fall of 1899 when he sold 
it out to his sons : and in 1902 he sold his farm 
also, and since that time has lived at ease, be- 
ing principally occupied with church work, 
in which he has always been active and prom- 
inent, serving as counsellor to the bishop at 
this place for twenty-six years and making 
his home on the same piece of land continu- 
ously since the spring of i860. In political 
creed Mr. Parkinson is a Republican, and 
from his young manhood he has been very 
active and influential in political circles. He 
is now one of the few remaining pioneers of 
the town, and is universally venerated by its 
people as a successful and representative man. 

By his first marriage he became the father 
of nine children, Samuel C. William C, 
Charlotte C. (Mrs. William Pratt), George C. 
Franklin C, Esther C. (Mrs. Henry T. 
Rogers), Albert C. (deceased). Clara C. (de- 
ceased), and Caroline C. (Mrs. Charles D. 
Goaslind.) Each has as a middle name the 
maiden name of the mother. Chandler. His 
second wife was Miss Charlotte Smart, a na- 
tive of Missouri. They are the parents of ten 
children, Anna S. (Mrs. Ossian L. Packer). 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



347 



Lucy S. (Mrs. Charles Lloyd), Joseph S., 
Frederick S., Leona S. (Mrs. Walter P. Mon- 
son). Bertha S. (Mrs. Nephi Larsen), Eva S., 
Hazel S. (Mrs. Peter P. Peterson), Nettie S. 
and Vivian S. The third marriage was to Miss 
Maria Smart, a sister of his second wife, also 
a native of Missouri, and, as in the case of the 
other two, all the children have her maiden 
name as their middle name. They are thirteen 
in number, ten of whom are living, Thomas 
S., Luella S. (Mrs. Matthias F. Cowley), 
Arabella S. (Mrs. Robert Daines), Sarah S. 
(Mrs. George T. Marshall), Olive S. (Mrs. 
Ezra Monson). Edmund S., Clarence S., Su- 
sanna S., Hazen S. and Glenn S. Those de- 
ceased are Henry S., Chloe S. and Leona S. 

In this large Mormon family there is not 
one "black sheep." All stand in the highest 
ranks of educational, professional and busi- 
ness life, fourteen of them being graduates from 
the leading educational institutions of the 
West, six of the number having given effec- 
tive service for years as educators, while four 
of the sons are now successfully conducting 
mercantile operations in a leading way and 
all of the children reflecting great credit on 
their parentage and also reflecting the noble 
qualities of the father by well-ordered lives 
of more than ordinary usefulness to society. 
Ten sons have reached the age of maturity 
and are exercising the right of suffrage. Such 
a statement of facts indicates what an impor- 
tant matter Mr. Parkinson considered the ed- 
ucation and proper bringing up of his children 
to be ; and, in a weak way, indicates the stren- 
uous exertions Mr. Parkinson must have made 
in the pioneer days to bring about this re- 
sult. Possessed of the highest patriotism as 
well as morality, there has never been a day 
in his mature life when he would not have 
taken up arms in defense of his country, and 
the sons spoken of above are fully dominated 
by the same loyalty to their country. 



JACOB N. PARKS. 

This representative citizen of Rigby has ■ 
had much to do with the development of Fre- 
mont county from its original pioneer condi- 
tion, being a skilled mechanic, the first car- 
penter of Rigby, and the architect and builder 
of some of the most beautiful and attractive 
public and private buildings of the country, 
notable among them being the Rigby mill, 
and all of the best buildings of the town, while 
at Lewisville he also constructed the best 
houses, among them the residences of Bishop 
Jardine, Mrs. Walter Davis and William Val- 
entine, and the addition to the schoolhouse at 
Menan and the City drug store at Hamilton. 
Mr. Parks was born in Burke county, N. C, 
on March 26, 1856, a son of William W. and 
Eliza (Copeney) Parks, and a history of his 
parents with ancestral data is given in the re- 
view of the life of W. W. Parks, appearing 
elsewhere in this work. 

From early life it was an established prin- 
ciple of Mr. Parks to do thoroughly whatever 
labor came to him to do, and upon attaining 
his majority he apprenticed himself to the 
trade of carpentry, serving four years in this 
apprenticeship under competent and capable 
tutelage, and acquiring a full technical knowl- 
edge of the theoretical as well as practical de- 
partments of this trade. In 1882 he came to 
Salt Lake City and was there engaged in car- 
pentry and also conducted a furniture- shop 
until he came to Rigby in 1884, after which 
he followed work at his trade in Montana for 
three years, thence returning to Rigby and 
making his home on the ranch he had located 
on his first visit. 

In the pioneer days all were alike destitute 
of money, and the ways by which the means of 
subsistence were provided is interesting to 
none. Deer in numbers used to gather in the 
"bottoms" and furnished the greater portion 



348 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



of the meat consumed by the settlers. Mr. 
Parks used to haul wood to Idaho Falls and 
exchange the load for ioo pounds of flour, the 
trip occupying two days. Another method 
of procuring supplies was cutting fence posts 
and wood and rafting them down the Snake 
River, where they were exchanged for the 
desired commodities. These primitive condi- 
tions passed away after a time, when the irri- 
gated fields began to yield their bounteous 
crops, and money began to come into the set- 
tlements with the rise of the land. 

Mr. Parks was even in the pioneer days in 
a better condition than many of the settlers, 
for carpenter work was always demanded ; 
even if cash could not be paid for it, provis- 
ions could be furnished, and there has never 
been a time here when there was no work for 
Mr. Parks to do in carpentry or building. 
He has been prominent in all matters of im- 
provement and public benefit, ever a worthy 
and public-spirited citizen. He was instru- 
mental in the construction of the earlv irri- 
gating canals, and assisted in putting in the 
head gate of the big canal. He has ever taken 
a thoughtful and an intelligent interest in pub- 
lic affairs from a Republican standpoint, and, 
in April. 1889, in President Harrison's ad- 
ministration, he was commissioned by Post- 
master General John W'annamaker as the first 
postmaster of Rigby. holding that office with 
great popular acceptance for ten consecutive 
years. For the last five years he has been 
identified with the Presbyterian church of 
Rigby, and he is now serving as the efficient 
superintendent of its Sabbath school. In the 
educational interests of the community Mr. 
Parks has ever been greatly interested, giv- 
ing freely of his time and means to advance 
their resources. 

At Louisville, Gaston county. X. C., on 
September 19, 1877. were performed tht mar- 
riage ceremonies of Mr. Parks and Miss Lizzie 



Burch. a daughter of William and Charity 
(Hager) Burch. natives of North Carolina, 
where she was born on December 8, 1862, 
her father owning and conducting a ferry 
across the Catawba River in connection with 
prosperous farming and gristmill operations. 
In 1892 Mrs. Parks returned to her native 
state to visit her paternal home and while she 
was there the father died, at seventy-two 
years of age, and soon after her return to Idaho 
the mother passed on to the Silent Land, 
at the age of sixty-nine yea^s. On August 
10, 1903, Mrs. Parks closed her earthly career 
after six days' illness, mourned by an unusually 
large number of close personal friends. 

The home circle of Mr. and Mrs. Parks 
was enlarged and blessed by the arrival of the 
following children : Mary G. died at thirteen 
days of age; Houston H. graduated in 1900 
from the New Jersey Academy of Logan, 
Utah, being now twenty-one years of age; 
Bessie M., eighteen years old; Mary J., fifteen 
years old; Darral R., thirteen years old; Char- 
ity M., ten years old; Solon \Y.. now three 
years of age and a general favorite. 

W. W. PARKS. 

Descending from North Oarolinan ances- 
tors that have made their homes in that state 
from the early Colonial days, representatives of 
the name having in each generation filled civil 
and military positions with honor, their names 
being found on the battle roll of every war 
from the Revolution to the present writing. \Y. 
W. Parks, an honored resident of Rigby. Fre- 
mont county. Idaho, was born in Burke count}'. 
N. C. on November 25. 1832. and he has con- 
sequently more than filled the allotted length 
of days of the Biblical standard. He is the son 
of John and Elizabeth (Moore) Parks, the 
father being a country blacksmith, about twelve 
miles from More:antown. where he lived an in- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



349 



dustrious and unostentatious life, enjoying the 
esteem of his fellow men and seeing a family of 
fourteen children attain maturity under his 
hospitable roof. His death came to him in 
May, 1864, at the age of seventy years, while 
the cherished mother long survived him, attain- 
ing the venerable age of eighty-nine years be- 
fore her death in 1891. 

In the industrious surroundings of the 
childhood home of W. W. Parks there was no 
place for idleness, and he early was cognizant 
of the dignity and the necessity of labor, giv- 
ing earnest attention to whatever came to hand 
to do, and in his father's shop, and under his 
competent tutelage, he acquired a skilled 
knowledge of the blacksmith's trade and, on 
the farms adjacent thereto, an understanding 
of farming. Thus things were proceeding, his 
time being passed in. honest industry, when the 
great war of 1861 burst upon the country, 
sweeping established institutions from their 
foundations, and calling every able-bodied man 
into military service to wear either the blue or 
the gray. Without hesitation, Mr. Parks en- 
rolled himself in the Fifty-eighth North Caro- 
lina Regiment, C. S. A., and with the gallant 
fortunes of that organization he identified 
himself, giving active and continuous service 
until the close of the war, participating in nu- 
merous sharply contested engagements and 
battles with "bushwhackers," but never receiv- 
ing a wound. 

When peace returned, Mr. Parks returned 
to his former home and employments, remain- 
ing in North Carolina until 1881, when, coming 
west to Colorado, he was there employed for 
seven months, thence removing to Salt Lake 
City, where he first labored as a carpenter for 
six months, thereafter being connected with 
the operations of the salt works for one year. 
It was in 1884, when the Upper Snake River 
Valley was still an almost untouched pioneer 
section, that Mr. Parks came to the Rigby set- 



tlement to establish a home in this land of 
glorious possibilities, and, on the open tract of 
sagebrush plains, he chose a location two and' 
one-half miles northwest of Rigby, there taking 
up a homestead of 160 acres, on which he has 
since resided, being a prominent factor in all 
matters looking toward the improvement, the 
development or the building up of the valley. 
He assisted in the construction of the three 
earliest canals to bring the needed water to the 
fields of this section, and is now a stockholder 
in the North Rigby Irrigation Canal Co. 

As quiet, and unostentatious in his manner 
of life as his Eastern ancestors, he has at all 
times and under all circumstances refused to be 
considered as a candidate for any political or 
public office, and, when elected justice of the 
peace in 1900, he refused to qualify, as he did 
not want the office, being content to give an 
earnest support in a quiet way to the political 
party of his choice, the Democratic. He is 
well known as a man of broad liberality, pos- 
sessing a clear foresight and a tenacious pur- 
pose, as well as sagacity, ingenuity and firm- 
ness in the carrying out of his well-conceived 
plans, and it is recognized that his success has 
not come to him as a matter of chance, but has 
been the result of his own ability, integrity and 
silent perseverance: 

It was in Burke county, North Carolina, on 
February 22, 1854, that the marriage of Mr. 
Parks and Miss Eliza N. Copeney was solem- 
nized, she being the daughter of Albert and 
Sophronia (Harshaw) Copeney, also represen- 
tatives of old North Carolina families born in 
Burke county, and sterling types of the best 
agricultural class of the state, where her father 
died in November, 1853, at the age of forty- 
five years, and the mother, who long survived 
her husband, attained the venerable age of 
eighty-eight years, dying in 1901. 

We will now give a brief record of the 
births and deaths of the children who have 



35° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



come to bless and cheer the home of Mr. and 
Mrs. Parks: Jacob, torn March 25, 1855; 
Thomas, born October 27. 1858. died in Burke 
county, N. C, in 1859; Mary Elizabeth, born 
January 10. i860; Annis, born June 3. 1862, 
Beatrice, born February 17, 1864, died at 
Rig-by, Idaho, at the age of twenty-nine years ; 
Lulu, born February 22, 1866: Herbert M., 
born March 25, 1869; Ibra, born June 9, 1871 ; 
Metta L., born August 10, 1873, died aged 
fourteen months; Teesdale, born October 12, 
1876. 

The private life of Mr. Parks is without 
blemish, and those who know him best, his 
friends and his neighbors, all testify to his 
courtesy, his affability, his generosity and his 
true manliness. He is a type of that manhood 
in which the best American citizenship is ex- 
emplified, and the family stands high in the so- 
cial ranks of the community, while the hospital- 
ity of the generous household is of that cordial, 
old-time character, now, alas, passing rapidly 
away. May the father and mother be spared 
long years to dispense it to their multitude of 
friends and acquaintances. 

ANDREW A. ANDERSON. 

A few of the "old-timers" are yet with us 
today; men who did not come west in the 
palatial railroad trains, but marched across 
the plains, keeping step and time with the 
slow "bull teams;" men who know the mean- 
ing of the warvvhoop, experienced the perils 
and excitement of Indian warfare, and were 
the ones who blazed the way for so many 
thousands of followers to come to this garden 
land of the Great West in safety and in peace. 
Their numbers are steadily growing less and 
the white-haired remnant now existing will 
soon have passed away, leaving "the old pio- 
neer" only a memory in the minds of the 
younger generation. And one of this number 



is Andrew A. Anderson, who is now passing 
the closing years of an active, useful and ad- 
venturous life in the peaceful serenity and 
rural surroundings of his home at Rexburg, 
Idaho. 

Mr. Anderson was born on March 4, 
1832. at Murray, Orleans county, N. Y., a 
son of Andrew S. and Ann J. (Johnson) An- 
derson, who came from Norway to America 
during the war of 18 12, as one of the crew 
of a vessel, all being left stranded at New 
York City. He thereafter entered the Ameri- 
can service and fought heroically against the 
invading English until they were driven from 
America, and afterward became a resident and 
citizen of the country his valor had defended. 
He later located his family, first in the new 
forest lands of Orleans county. N. Y.. for an 
eight years' residence, then they commenced 
their long westward way. purchasing land in 
Illinois and there conducting farming oper- 
ations until 1848, when, as dutiful Mormons, 
they took up the line of march for Utah in 
this the second year of the Mormon pilgrim- 
age, in one of the companies of the "Saints." 
In the spring of 1858 he was a member of that 
famous historic company that President 
Young sent from Salt Lake to Salmon River 
settlement of Idaho to bring away the be- 
leagured colonists of Lemhi, they abandon- 
ing the homes they had there created to the 
savage Indians who were thirsting for their 
blood. After two years' residence in Salt 
Lake City, the family home was transferred to 
the new town of Lehi, where the Saints were 
struggling to sustain a footing, although se- 
riously embarassed by the hostile manifesta- 
tions of the Indians, and here the father died 
in June. 1858. the mother living to be ninety- 
four years old and dying in 1864. 

The first individual enterprise of Mr. An- 
derson of this memoir was serving as an In- 
dian scout for two vears. in which he had not 




A. A. ANDERSON. 




MRS. A. A. ANDERSON. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



353 



a few episodes of danger and other thrilling 
experiences. In the summer of 1850 he aided 
in the construction of the first house erected 
within the present limits of the state of Ne- 
vada. This was built to be used as a trading 
post, near the center of Carson Valley, and at 
the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but 
Mr. Anderson tarried here only three months, 
thence going on to California, where he was 
engaged in mining at various camps, but 
mostly on the Middle Fork of the American 
River. On the return trip, in 1851, his party 
was attacked by Indians on the Humboldt 
River of Nevada, in the melee a spent bullet 
striking Mr. Anderson on the mouth but 
with fortunately no serious results. Two years 
later he enlisted in a Utah cavalry regiment 
and passed a very bus)' year in Indian war- 
fare, many times being surrounded, but in 
every instance escaping without injury. In 
1853 an d 1854 he was a scout under General 
Wells and has never yet received his discharge 
from that service. In 1857 he was a scout for 
the Mormon forces in the campaign against 
General Johnston, and, in dodging the Federal 
soldiers, was kept incessantly on the move, as 
were the Mormon leaders to avoid capture. 
Mr. Anderson says : "No guns were fired, 
however, and the ropes that Johnston brought 
to hang the leaders of the Mormons were 
burned by a small detachment of Utah 
troops." 

In 185 1 Mr. Anderson purchased 
twenty acres of land near Lehi, where he made 
a pleasant home for his family and cultivated 
the rich soil. In i860 he took up forty-five 
acres of government land in Cache county, 
Utah, and in the military operations of that 
section of the West, in 1861, he was an 
active participant in every battle fought, his 
organization coming off victorious in all. He 
continued his farming in Cache county until 
T884, with the exception of one year, when 



he was called to Arizona to aid in founding a 
settlement, thence removing to Rexburg, 
where he has been since engaged in profitable 
agricultural operations. In politics he is a 
Republican and socially he is an estimable 
and public-spirited citizen, a genial com- 
panion, and a strong friend, enjoying also< a 
universal popularity among young and old. 
In the Church of Latter Day Saints he was 
ordained as a teacher in 1852, an elder in 
1855, one of the Seventies in. 1856, a high 
priest in 1884, and as a patriarch in 1901. 

The marriage of Mr. Anderson with Miss 
Mary Smith was consecrated on July 27. 
1 85 1, her parents being Abram and May 
(McEwen) Smith, the father dying in Scot- 
land and the mother later coming to Utah, 
where she resided at Beaver until her death. 
The names of their children, the date of 
birth, etc., are as follows: Andrew S.. born 
November 28, 1858; Sarah A., born June 12. 
1861 ; Almira M., born June 18, 1863 ; Joseph 
A., born July 8, 1865, died February 11, 1890, 
buried at Smithfield, Utah; Jane, born in 
November, 1867, died at the age of three 
months; Mary A., born May 15, 1870; John 
A., born January 26, 1873; Robert W., born 
March 17, 1875, died April 2, 1877; George 
W., born July 31, 1877; Solvay C, born De- 
cember 4, 1881, died in September, 1883; 
Zina P., born January 29, 1885. Mrs. Ander- 
son died on May 8, 1900, aged fifty-seven 
years, closing a life of true womanly and 
motherly attributes to the permanent sorrow 
of not only the members of her immediate 
family, but of a vast number of friends who 
loved her for her genuine worth. 

WALTER PAUL. 

This veteran pioneer, who in many de- 
partments of the industrial activity of the in- 
termountain section of the Rocky Mountains 



354 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



has given willing and valuable service, was 
born in Cornwall, England, on March 10, 
1834, and is consequently in the seventieth 
year of his life. He is a son of William and 
Elizabeth (Goyne) Paul, who brought the fam- 
ily from England to Utah, arriving in Salt 
Lake City on October 2, 1854. The father, 
as an able architect, was connected with 
the building up, development and the beauti- 
fying of the place, dying at the venerable age 
of eighty-six years, the mother of the subject 
of this review dying at the age of fifty years 
within less than three months from her arrival 
at Salt Lake City. 

After identifying himself with various in- 
dustries in and around Salt Lake City until 
1871, Mr. Paul established himself in the 
furniture business in the Cache Valley of 
L T tah, receiving a fine patronage for the eleven 
years he was there resident, and thereafter re- 
moving in 1883 to Rexburg as one of the earli- 
est pioneers of the whole Upper Valley of the 
Snake River, and here he has since been resi- 
dent, being closely connected in many ways 
with the advancement and development of the 
country and holding numerous offices tend- 
ing to show the high public estimate of him 
as a man and his eminent capability for hold- 
ing important trusts. He has forty acres of 
productive farming land, has from the first 
been engaged in the furniture business, was 
employed as the first surgeon of Rexbnrg and 
served as the first undertaker. Ever a stal- 
wart Republican, he was elected a justice of 
the peace in 1884, serving in this office for 
two years, then was elected county coroner, 
as such holding the first inquest of Fremont 
comity on the body of a son of Wvman 
Parker, who was accidentally shot to death. 
Holding the appointment of assistant post- 
master of Rexburg for one year, he was then 
commissioned postmaster bv President Cleve- 
land, holding that office until the Mormons 



were disfranchised. When the first dramatic 
association of Rexburg was organized in 
1882, Mr. Paul was made its president, hold- 
ing the position with acceptability for seven 
vears. and in all public enterprises he has ever 
manifested a cordial liberality and assistance 
and gave financial aid to the construction of 
those great arteries of the agricultural life 
of this section, the early irrigating canals. 

By his first wife Ann, a daughter of Gei irge 
and Mary Walker, who was born on January 
28, 1840. and whom he married on December 
25. 1856. Mr. Paul had these children : Anna 
E., Walter G. (see his sketch on other pages 
of this book), William H., John R.. Mary J., 
Prissilla, deceased, Edmund Y. and Sarah 
(twins), Frank O. and Minnie S. George 
and Mary Walker were natives of England, 
who became residents of Missouri in 1849 
and in 1851 crossed the plains in an ox team 
company, making their residence first in Salt 
Lake City and later in the Cache Valley, 
where the mother now resides. Mary Ann 
Walker Paul died on January 14, 1875, and the 
second marriage of Mr. Paul was on March 
10, 1877, being then united with Miss Emma 
Westover, whose birth occurred on Septem- 
ber 3, 1858. a daughter of Edwin and Ann 
(Finley) Westover. natives of Glasgow. Scot- 
land, and to them have been born Oscar S. 
Edmund R. (who enlisted as a soldier in the 
Spanish-American war on May 3, 1898. and. 
serving in the Philippine Islands, participated 
in the hotly contested battles of Manila, Paco, 
Santa Ana, Calaocan and others equally as 
important, also in the trenches rendering 
most gallant service, being honorably mus- 
tered out at Presidio, Calif., on September 25, 
i8gq), Louisa A.. Laura M. (deceased), Clar- 
ence, Haddassah, Emma A. (deceased), Dora 
L.. Fremont R. (the first child born in Rex- 
burg after this became Fremont county, who 
is now deceased). Elmer B. and Harold L. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNllIES, IDAHO. 



355 



Mrs. Emma Westover died January 15, 1897. 
The Paul family has an extensive acquaint- 
ance and is an important element in social 
and other functions, while. the cordial hospital- 
ity manifested indicates the innate courtesy 
of the inmates of their family circles and wins 
and retains raanv friends. 

EPHRAIM PETERSON. 

Successful in business, even under adverse 
circumstances, prominent in politics, active and 
influential in church work, and exhibiting en- 
terprise and public spirit in the matter of local 
improvements, Ephraim Peterson, of Mink 
Creek, is one of the leading and representative 
citizens of Oneida county, and is justly entitled 
on his personal merit and his public services to 
the community to the high respect in which he 
is held by all classes of people. He was born 
at Salt Lake City on April 20, 1858, the son 
of Hans and Karn Sophia (Anderson) Peter- 
son, natives of Denmark. In 185 1 they em- 
braced the doctrines of the Mormon church, 
and five years later emigrated to- the United 
States. After reaching the Mississippi thev 
made their way with toil and difficulty across 
the plains in one of the renowned handcart 
trains, and settled at Brigham City. 

In 1857, on account of the Indian uprising, 
they with other residents of that neighborhood 
went further south in the territory, and while 
living at Salt Lake City their son, Ephraim, 
was born. When quiet and safety were re- 
stored at Brigham they returned to that town 
and there the father was busily engaged as a 
cooper, supplying barrels to all the surrounding 
country. Both parents passed the rest of their 
lives there, the mother dying in May, 1900, 
and the father in October, 1902. As pioneers 
of the town they helped to found it, and as 
good, enterprising and progressive citizens 
they helped to develop the resources of the 



country around them and build up its little 
center of population and business. They were 
held in high esteem by all its people, among 
whom they lived useful lives, with becoming 
loyalty to the church of their adoption and the 
interests of the community in which they had 
cast their lot. 

Ephraim Peterson was reared and in a 
small way educated at Brigham City, but his 
scholastic training at the schools was meager, 
and he was obliged to supply its deficiencies by 
diligent study and reading at night, being at 
an earl)' age forced to provide for himself by 
hard work. He was employed at different oc- 
cupations at and near his home until 1877, 
when he married, and soon afterward moved to 
Mink Creek, Idaho. When he there settled h.z 
found only four settlers living there, and he 
was in all respects a veritable pioneer in a new 
and unsettled country. He turned his attention 
to farming and stockraising, which were the 
occupations of the region for everybody, and 
continued to devote himself exclusively to them 
until 1887, when he bought a piece of land on 
the creek and built a store. This he stocked 
with a complete line of general merchandise, 
and its opening was hailed as the inauguration 
of a much-needed enterprise in the community. 

He conducted the store with energy and 
breadth of view and found it profitable to him- 
self, as well as very serviceable to the people. 
At the same time he carried on farming- 
operations, but hired all his help in this line in 
order to give his entire attention to his mer- 
cantile business. In 189 1, being called on a 
two-years mission to Virginia, he rented the 
store and its privileges for that time, and when 
he returned and resumed control of it he found 
that bad management during his absence had 
nearly ruined the business. He went to work, 
however, with determination and persistent 
effort to rehabilitate it, and in time had it once 
more established on a firmi and profitable basis 



35^ 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



From his return lie was occupied in widening 
his operations, in keeping pace in even - way 
with the progress and development of the com- 
munity, until his store was one of the leading 
mercantile enterprises, and he became one of 
the leading merchants of his part of the county 
until he disposed of it by sale on August 22, 
1903. 

While located at a small place, and not 
conspicuously on the highways of travel or 
commerce, his enterprising spirit and decided 
business capacity brought tribute to his coffers 
and commendation of his skill from a very 
large scope of country, and established him in 
the confidence and esteem of the business world 
as a man particularly gifted with the commer- 
cial genius that creates trade anywhere and 
promotes all the progressive elements of a com- 
munity. In political faith he is an unyielding 
Republican, and both as a private worker in 
the ranks of his party, and as its representative 
in important public positions, he has given the 
principles to which he adheres strong support 
and has dignified them in the eyes of his fel- 
lows. He served four years as a constable, and 
in 1900 was elected justice of the peace, an 
office which he filled until 1903. 

In the fall of 1897 Mr. Peterson was 
chosen to represent Oneida county in the state 
Legislature, and in that exalted forum he fully 
realized the expectations of his people in the 
character of the service he rendered and the 
benefits he secured for the county and state in 
legislation. In 1901 a cooperative company 
was formed for the purpose of purchasing and 
operating a dairy business, which had been 
started the previous year. In this company he 
owns one-third of the stock, his being the 
largest interest belonging to any one man. The 
enterprise is conducted with intelligence and on 
strict business principles, and is yielding good 
profits to its stockholders. 

Mr. Peterson was married at Brigham 



City. Utah, on September 10. 1877, with Miss 
Christiana Christensen, a native of Denmark 
and a daughter of Nels and Annie Sophia 
Christensen, of that country. They came to 
Utah and settled at Brigham City in 1875. an 1 
some time after the Petersons located at Mink 
Creek they also took up their residence there, 
where the mother died in 1888 and the father 
is still living. Twelve children have come to 
the Peterson household. Annie C, Matilda and 
a twin sister who died at her birth. Elvira, 
Francis. Laurene. Ephraim, Jr., Leo. Martin. 
Oscar, Early and Howard. 

JAMES POLSOX. 

Having his birth in the far-distant land of 
Sweden, where he was born on April 7. 1841. a 
son of Paul and Amanda Poison, both of his 
parents having passed their entire lives in their 
native land, where they died, James Poison is 
now the owner of 160 acres of finely improved 
land in the vicinity of Taylor postoffice, Idaho, 
which by his energy, industry and discrimina- 
ting efforts has been transformed from a desert 
wilderness to a highly productive ranch, on 
which its energetic proprietor is conducting 
stockraising operations of scope and import- 
ance, running fine bands of horses, cattle and 
droves of hogs. 

In 1871 occurred the emigration of Mr. 
Poison from his native land, he coining direct 
to Salt Lake City, under the auspices of the 
Mormon church, with which he had become 
affiliated. At Salt Lake City he became a 
laborer in the mines of Utah until 1888, then, 
after a period of time, selling his possessions in 
that state, thence removing to Bingham county 
and locating on his present productive ranch. 

Mr. Poison has been twice married, his first 
wife being a native of Sweden, where the mar- 
riage occurred, she accompanying him to 
America, where her life closed in L T tah. Their 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



357 



children were Parley, Annie (deceased), An- 
drew and Emma. After her death he remar- 
ried, and by this second union he is the father 
of seven children, Matilda, James A., Lena, 
Joseph, Clara, Lawrence, Abraham (deceased), 
Mary, and Oscar (deceased). There is an at- 
mosphere of general prosperity surrounding 
the home of Mr. Poison, and by his diligent in- 
dustry as well as deeply religious zeal, he 
stands high in the community and holds a po- 
sition of high priest in his church. 

JOHN PETERSON. 

The life of Mr. Peterson, who is now a 
progressive farmer and stockman of Bingham 
county, Idaho, has been replete with cease- 
less toil and endeavor, and his career has been 
a rather uneventful one, but his energy and 
progressive spirit have enabled him to attain 
a position of prosperity and to win a worthy 
success, and he has been for a term of years 
industriously identified with the productive in- 
terests of the state of Idaho, aiding and con- 
tributing to the advancement and material 
prosperity of the commonwealth, while his 
course has ever been such as to retain the 
confidence and esteem of his fellow men. He 
is a native of the far-away kingdom of Den- 
mark, where he was born on January 14, 1855, 
as the son of Peter and Helen Peterson, the 
parents being natives of Denmark and thrifty 
farmers. His father was born in 1816, a son 
of Thomas Thomason, the family lineage go- 
ing back through unnumbered generations in 
that little kingdom. His mother was also 
born in 181 6, and of her seven children six 
are now living, she herself passing from earth 
in her native land, at the venerable age of 
eighty-two years. 

Deeming the conditions of life in Den- 
mark unpropitious for an active and resolute 
nature, at the early age of nineteen years John 



Peterson left his native land and, coming to 
the United States, made his first location at 
Saint Joseph, Mo., where he remained, dil- 
igently following his trade of stationary en- 
gineer from 1874 until the fall of 1882, thence 
removing to Iowa for the winter and in the 
spring making the long wearisome journey 
across the plains to Brigham City, Utah, the 
next year coming to his present home in 
Bingham county, Idaho, where he availed 
himself of his right of homesteading by filing 
upon 160 acres of government land, also mak- 
ing a timber culture claim of an equal area, 
and engaged in general farming and in the 
raising of cattle, which vocation he has fol- 
lowed until the present time. 

When he located upon his property he was 
in truth a pioneer settler, and his influence 
and labors have done much toward bringing 
about the changed appearance of the country. 
It seems almost like a magic picture t<j(note 
the changes that have been wrought by his 
care, energy and discriminate efforts upon the 
apparently barren tract upon which he set- 
tled. He has now a fine estate, comfortable 
buildings, productive acres and fertile fields. 
Surely no representative of his native 
country but would congratulate him upon the 
progress he has made and upon the success he 
has met in this land of his adoption, and he 
truly has no reason to regret the brave cour- 
age that sent him across the water to the un- 
known land. 

On December 4, 1878, Mr. Peterson was 
united in marriage with Miss Caroline Jansen, 
a native of Denmark, and a daughter of Jens 
and Magdalina (Hansen) Jansen, both natives 
of Denmark, they emigrating in 1870 and set- 
tling in Kansas, where the father still re- 
sides, the mother dying in 1899 at the age of 
eighty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson 
have had twelve children : Helen, born Febru- 
ary 28, 1880; Peter, born June 4, 1881 ; Rosa, 



358 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



born April 23. 1883; John, born October 30, 
1884; Carrie, born October 2, 1886; Minnie, 
born September 6, 1888, deceased; Luty, born 
December 27, 1889; William, born October 
25, 1891 ; Oscar, born December 23, 1893; 
David, born July 17, 1896, deceased; Walter, 
born November 24. 1897; Eva, born June 9, 
1901. As a citizen Mr. Peterson is popular 
with all classes, being considered an indus- 
trious and hard-working citizen, an upright 
and broad-minded man, who aims to do his 
whole duty and make his life conform to right, 
as he sees and understands it, while in his home 
and circle of acquaintances himself and wife 
have a well-earned reputation for their hos- 
pitality. 

L. J. PORTER. 

Probably no resident of Bingham county 
is more in touch with the scientific and prac- 
tical methods underlying successful agricul- 
ture than the representative citizen of Idaho 
whose name heads this review, whose beauti- 
ful homestead ranch is located eight miles 
north of the village of Blackfoot, on the west 
side of Snake River, where he is most profit- 
ably engaged in conducting successful stock- 
raising and farming operations. He was 
born on June 22, 1857, in Sullivan county. 
Pa., a son of Latney and Seraphene (Brown) 
Porter, for whose personal history we refer 
the reader to the sketch of the brother of Mr. 
Porter, John P. Porter, which appears else- 
where in this volume. 

Until his majority L. J. Porter passed his 
life in attending school and aiding his father 
in his numerous business activities, then for 
eight years he was engaged in agricultural 
operations in his native county, becoming dur- 
ing this period thoroughly conversant with 
the best methods for successfully conducting 
agriculture and, for a portion of this time, do- 
ing business for himself. In 1888 he came 



to Blackfoot, and here he became connected 
with western agriculture upon the fertile area 
of the homestead of his present residence, en- 
gaging in stockraising operations in connec- 
tion with general fanning. He has since been 
very prominent in connection with the devel- 
opment of agriculture in this section of the 
state, and was one of the originators and 
builders of the Lava-Side Irrigating Ditch, 
and was general manager of the company. 

A man of pronounced ideas, good judg- 
ment and executive ability, his services have 
been brought into requisition as an instructor 
in farming in the United States Indian service, 
and his agricultural proficiency has also had 
recognition in his appointment as foreman of 
farming on the Bannock Creek Reservation, 
where he gave most valuable service for two 
years and three months. He is an active 
and zealous worker in the ranks of the Re- 
publican party and is greatly interested in all 
public matters of a local nature, serving the 
public with great capability in the offices of 
school trustees and justice of the peace for 
several terms, while fraternally he is identi- 
fied with the Modern Woodmen of America. 
Mr. Porter has been twice married, first, on 
September 25, 1880. with Miss Elizabeth 
Gloekler, of Pennsylvania, a daughter of 
Anthony and Margaret Gloekler, who died at 
Blackfoot in 1900 at the age of forty years, 
leaving six children : Roseltha, George, Ar- 
villa, Floyd, Clarence and Ervin. His second 
marriage was on July 27, 190 1, with Mrs. 
Emily (Mead) Ramey. a native of Virgina, 
whose first husband was David Ramey. 

NAHUM B. PORTER. 

The late Nahum B. Porter, of Preston, 
whose death on February 12, 1894, at the age 
of sixty-three years, came as a shock to the 
community, although failing health for some 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



359 



years previously had in a measure prepared the 
way for it, was a native of Ossian, Livingston 
county, N. Y., born on June 16, 183 1. His 
parents were Abram and Marcia M. (Bisby) 
Porter, also New Yorkers, residents of Living- 
ston county from their birth until they came to 
Utah in 1863. Mr. Porter grew to manhood 
in his native county and was educated in its 
public schools. After leaving school he worked 
at various occupations, being industrious and 
ambitious of being employed and not above 
doing whatever offered that was profitable and 
gave the means of advancement. 

In the spring of 1863, in company with his 
parents and his own family, Mr. Porter came 
to Utah, making the trip ovar the plains with 
teams, and reaching Salt Lake City after 
the usual trying experiences and long 
drawn-out endurance. After lingering a 
short time at the Mormon capital he 
settled near Ogden and was there en- 
gaged in farming until 1876, when he 
went into the employ of the Utah & Northern 
Railroad, engaging in section work on the 
Cache Valley branch. He first moved his fam- 
ily to Logan for a year at this time, and then, 
the branch being completed to Preston, he lo- 
cated on land one-half mile south of what is 
now the center of the town, built a dwelling and 
other necessary houses on it, and took his fam- 
ily there to live. He continued to work on 
the railroad and at the same time put his land 
under cultivation and conducted its tillage on a 
small scale. 

About 188 1 he was called to the bishopric 
of the newly organized Preston ward, and at 
once left the railroad service and devoted him- 
self to the interests of the church and his farm. 
He served as bishop until 1889, when he re- 
signed and William E. Parkinson was called to 
succeed him. He was prosperous and frugal, 
and made judicious investments in real-estate, 
buying considerable property in and around 



Preston, at one time owning the lot now occu- 
pied by the store of John Larsen & Sons. 
After resigning the bishopric he gave his whole 
attention to his farming operations, and al- 
though his health was feeble and he was not 
able to do much physical labor, his mind was 
active and his judgment was good, and he 
managed his industry with great success and 
vigor. He was also interested in a sawmill near 
Preston, and this was operated with the same 
energy and close attention to details that char- 
acterized his farm work. He was in those days 
one of the foremost men of his community, and 
was always active in the promotion of every 
good undertaking for the advancement or im- 
provement of the county. In church affairs he 
retained his interest to the last, and never 
stinted his contributions of time, labor or ma- 
terial aid in the enlargement of the powers or 
the increase of the good work of the organiza- 
tion to which he was so firmly attached. He 
died on February 12, 1894, and was buried at 
Preston. Since then his widow has made her 
home with her son, N. Boyd Porter. On Oc- 
tober 22, 1853, at Ossian, N. Y., Mr. Porter 
was united in marriage with Miss Rachel A. 
Murray, a native of that state and daughter of 
Samuel S. and Sallie M. (Wilcox) Murray. 
Her father was a sawmill owner and operator 
in that state, where he remained until his death. 
Mr. and Mrs. Porter had seven children : 
Frances. M. (Mrs. Brown), Alice V. (Mrs. 
Young), Margaret (Mrs. West), N. Boyd and 
Nellie (Mrs. Head), living, and Rose E. and 
Jennie, deceased. Mr. Porter's life was active 
and useful, never ignoring his own interests and 
his duty to make the best provision he could for 
his family, but at the same time holding ever 
prominently in view the general weal of the 
county and state in which he lived, with due re- 
gard to each of the moral, educational, social, 
industrial and mercantile agencies on which 
their development and advancement depended. 



3 6 ° 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



He was a leading man. and was universally es- 
teemed as such. 

N. Boyd Porter, the only son and 
fifth child of Nahum B. Porter, is a native of 
the state in which the church to which he be- 
longs, and of which he is an ornament, is so 
potential, and which it has built largely by its 
own systematic energy and indomitable push 
and perseverance, having been born at Ogden. 
Utah, on February i, 1866, although he be- 
came a resident of Idaho when he was about 
eleven years old. He received his education 
mainly at Preston and afterward was employed 
on his father's farm until his first marriage, 
and since that time he has been variously occu- 
pied, but always with profit and credit to him- 
self and advantage to his personal welfare and 
permanent good. In 1901 he started a cattle 
industry by leasing land and taking stock on 
shares, and in this venture, as in all others, he 
has been successful and prosperous. 

Mr. Porter was married first at Logan. 
Utah, on December 6, 1888, to Miss Rosamond 
Green, a native of that state, and they had two 
children, Lewis B. and Rachel. This wife die 1 
on September 24, 1892, and was buried at 
Preston. His second marriage occurred on 
June 30, 1897, and he was then united with 
Miss Sarah J. Clayton, a native of Franklin. 
Idaho. They have three children. Iona. Ellen 
and Spencer. Mr. Porter is one of the sub- 
stantial and rising young men of the county, a 
worthy follower of his father's excellent ex- 
ample. 

WILLIAM QUAYLE. 

The life of the prosperous citizen of Bear 
Lake county, Idaho, whose name stands at 
the head of this review, has been replete with 
all the varied experiences of the anxious pio- 
neer and the wealthy citizen, and the happi- 
ness of a cheerful and prosperous old age has 
come to him as a rich bounty for the excel- 



lency, the public spirit and the financial abil- 
ity he has manifested throughout his long and 
instructive career. William Quayle was born 
on July 24. 1839. in Illinois, his parents, John 
and Catherine (Killup) Quayle, natives of the 
Isle of Man, becoming residents of that state 
as early pioneers immediately subsequent to 
their emigration from Great Britain in 1837, 
and filling well their spheres in the agricul- 
tural development of that then new land until 
1845, when, becoming members of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, they de- 
termined to join the multitudes of their relig- 
ious belief who were going westward to the 
land of Deseret to build up a mighty nation 
whose God should be the Lord, and they were 
members of one of the earliest, if not the earl- 
iest. Mormon battalions to take the long, 
wearisome, and at that time extremely danger- 
ous, journey across the plains to the site of 
Salt Lake City. In the varying labors inci- 
dent to the transforming of a wilderness into 
a land of gardens, flowing with milk and 
honey, they passed many years, the father dy- 
ing in 1892, at the patriarchal age of ninety- 
one years, long surviving the mother, whose 
life's activities ceased in 1850. 

Educated in Salt Lake City until he was 
fourteen years of age. Mr. Quayle of this re- 
view then took life in hand for himself, and 
proceeded to California, ami. after two years 
passed there in various employments, he en- 
gaged in freighting operations which he pros- 
perously conducted for ten years, during this 
time making ten trips over the long trail of the 
plains with ox teams, encountering many pri- 
vations, hardships and dangers, and experienc- 
ing many adventures. At one time, in a bat- 
tle with the Indians at Rawlins. Wyo., he was 
sore beset and had his horse shot from under 
him. Desiring a quieter and less eventful life 
than freighting. Mr. Quayle began ranching 
in Cedar Valley, Utah, continuing there im- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



361 



til seven years had passed, when, on Septem- 
ber 1, 1874, he came to his present location at 
Dingle, Idaho, immediately taking a position 
of importance among the people of the 
county, and engaging in stockraising opera- 
tions of great scope and importance, being ac- 
knowledged a leader in his line and ever main- 
taining the grade of his stock at a high stand- 
ard. 

His industry, foresight, practical ability 
and financial skill have brought him wealth, 
but its acquisition has in no wise changed 
the genial, cordial, courteous nature that from 
his earliest days has won him friends in no 
unstinted measure, and the old-time hospital- 
ity of the earlier days is fully exemplified at 
his home. He has a well-improved ranch of 
700 acres in Dingle Valley, where he is now 
raising large herds of finely graded cattle of 
superior quality and extensive flocks of sheep. 
He is also the owner of a large flouring mill 
at Montpelier, now under lease to one of his 
sons. As an, evidence of the standing he holds 
in the estimation of the people, we will state 
that he has been twice elected by very flatter- 
ing votes to' hold the responsible position of 
county treasurer, discharging the duties of the 
office with acceptability to his constitutents, 
becoming recognized as a capable and faith- 
ful official. 

Mr. Quayle was married in 1863, at Cedar 
Fork, Utah, with Miss Mary J. Cook, whose 
father was an able bishop of the church for 
many years. She died in 1895 and thereafter 
Mr. Quayle wedded Miss Elizabeth Dayton, 
a daughter of the late Moroni Dayton, of 
Dingle, who dispenses the famed household 
entertainments of this hospitable home with 
a pleasing cordiality. Mr. Quayle has four- 
teen living children and fifteen grandchildren. 
It is the wish of all that this genial and typical 
pioneer may live long in the land to enjoy the 
results of his own industry and thrift. 



WILLIAM PRIEST. 

For the ancestral history of this worthy 
citizen and typical agriculturist of the vicinity 
of Taylor, Bingham county, Idaho, we must 
cross the Atlantic, and consult the records 
of the parish churches of the foreign land of 
Wales, since his grandparents, John and Jane 
(James) Priest, were natives of that country, 
where their progenitors had lived for many 
generations, they however removing to Eng- 
land and residing there until their deaths. 
Their son, William Priest, the father of the 
subject of this review, attained mature years 
in England, where he married Martha All- 
mark in 1849, an d from early youth he was 
in his native country identified with the 
mining of coal. 

Their thoughts were directed in the line of 
emigration by the brilliant representations of 
Mormon missionaries with whom they identi- 
fied themselves in religion, and in 1857 he 
crossed the Atlantic and located in the coal 
mining region of Pennsylvania, whither in 
1859 his family also journeyed, and they there 
resided for a period of three years, when, in 
1862, to secure the desired privileges and op- 
portunities of church associations, they made 
the long, wearisome journey across the wild 
plains of the West to Utah, located in Davis 
county and engaged in farming. 

His knowledge of coalmining gave him 
great advantage in the new lands of the West, 
and he was the discoverer and first developer 
of the coal mines at Rock Springs in Wyom- 
ing. By his brethren in the church he was 
greatly esteemed, being a first counsellor to the 
bishop, his death occurring at Taylor, Idaho, 
on May 22, 1898; his esteemed wife having 
preceded him to the Silent Land in 1896. 
Their eight children are: John, Mary J., Wil- 
liam, Lucy A., Thomas H., Edward, James 
D. and Emma. 



362 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



William Priest of this review passed his 
boyhood days in Utah, devoting years to 
steady toil and the watchful care of his pa- 
rents' interests, giving' his attention to his 
father's homestead until he attained the age 
of twenty-two years, when he commenced to 
operate the farm on his own responsibility, his 
diligent attention and unremitting industry 
making good returns, and in 1885 he came 
to Bingham county and filed a homestead 
claim of 160 acres of land on the place where 
he now owns fifty-five acres. At the time of 
his location the property was in a wild condi- 
tion, arid Mr. Priest spared no time or pains in 
reducing his crude land to a condition of 
fertile productiveness, giving active labor to 
the construction of irrigation canals and erect- 
ing a substantial and commodious residence 
and suitable outbuildings. Though caring 
little for office he has taken a very active part 
in public affairs, being a valued member of the 
Republican political party and an uncom- 
promising champion of right and justice. The 
esteem in which he is held as a representative 
of his religious faith is evidenced by the fact 
that for a period of fourteen years he had the 
distinction of being the bishop of Taylor 
ward. 

At Hooper, Utah, on October 26. 1879, 
Mr. Priest was united in marriage with Miss 
Joan Simpson, a native of Utah and a daugh- 
ter of William and Isabel Simpson, who were 
born in Scotland and were pioneer Mormon 
emigrants to the land of Utah. Mr. and Mrs. 
Priest are the parents of the following named 
children : William, deceased ; Isabella, de- 
ceased; Edward; Sarah E., deceased (the 
first child born in Taylor ward); Mary J., 
deceased ; John R. ; Clara J. ; Willford ; Henry 
Eugene ; Agnes, deceased ; Charles W. and 
Lester. Mr. Priest is extensively known from 
his active cooperation in all matters of pub- 
lic improvement, especially in the department 



of irrigation, he having been the president of 
several irrigation canal companies ; while in 
social life, his kindness and sympathy towards 
his fellow men, his generous hospitality in con- 
nection with his enterprises, and his integrity 
in all his business dealings have given him a 
high place in the regards of his associates. 

HYRUM S. RICH. 

The time-honored proverb, "the hand of the 
diligent maketh rich," is fully exemplified in the 
success that has attended the industrious and 
sagacious efforts of the worthy gentleman who 
is the subject of this review, as, after years of 
honest industry and right living, he is now the 
proprietor of a finely irrigated and highly im- 
proved estate of 100 acres of fertile and pro- 
ductive land, eligibly located at St. _ Charles. 
Bear Lake county, Idaho, which yields him 
large crops of hay and other valuable products 
and is the center of his productive cumulative 
stockraising operations, and which has been de- 
veloped from a desert condition by his contin- 
uous and discriminating industry. 

Hyrum S. Rich was born at Mt. Pisgah. 
Iowa, on October 8, 1846, the son of Charles 
C. and Sarah (Peck) Rich, and for a full his- 
tory of his honored father, who was one of the 
Twelve Apostles of the Mormon church, we 
refer the reader to his sketch appearing on 
other pages of this volume. Mr. Rich was but 
an infant of one year of age when he was 
brought to LTtah by his parents and in the early 
pioneer conditions of that territory he attained 
manhood and acquired the elements of a solid 
education. From the first settlement of the 
Bear Lake Valley he has been a factor in its 
development, as his father was the leader and 
the president of the colony, and he is consist- 
ently numbered as one of the early pioneers of 
this state. He has ever given his attention 
from early bovhood to farming and stockrais- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



36; 



ing, devoting his energies from the close of his 
school days at Genterville, Utah, entirely to 
these departments of husbandry. 

Mr. Rich views all public matters of a gen- 
eral or local interest from the standpoint of the 
Democratic party, and has been prominent 
among the people from 1 the earliest settlement, 
holding with great acceptability the office of 
county commissioner for two years, the office of 
constable at Paris for a number of years, and 
also filling with honor and credit many of the 
minor offices of the county. In religion he 
steadfastly upholds the gospel promulgated by 
Joseph Smith, and he has been honored with 
numerous responsible offices in the gift of his 
church, serving as a popular bishop of Fish Ha- 
ven ward for a distinct period of time, at pres- 
ent being a member of the high council of his 
stake, a leader in Sunday school work and in 
various ways maintaining the high standing 
and interests of the church. Mr. Rich has been 
especialty active in irrigation movements, and 
is a large stockholder in the first irrigation ca- 
nal constructed at Paris, holding the office of 
director therein for some time. 

Mr. Rich entered into the bonds of matri- 
mony with Miss Elizabeth Stock at Salt Lake 
City on June 29, 1867. She was born at Port 
Elizabeth, South Africa, on September 21, 
1848, the daughter of John and Jane (Adams) 
Stock, the father being a native of South Afri- 
ca and her mother of England. They came to 
America in i860 and settled at Salt Lake City, 
in May, 1864, establishing their home at Paris, 
Idaho, where the mother soon succumbed to 
disease, dying at Paris on May 12, 1865. In 
the spring of 1867 the family moved to Fish 
Haven, where the father died on October 19, 
1896. Mr. Rich has had twelve children : 
Sarah J., born November 17, 1868 ; Hyrum S., 
born September 26, 1870; Edwin C, born Oc- 
tober 2, 1872 ; Orson S., born October 9, 1874; 
Orissa E., born January 13, 1877; Aaron A., 



born June 26, 1879, died October 31, 1895; 
Luetta A., born August 19, 1881; Ethel M., 
bom March 4, 1884; Verba L., born May 13, 
1886; Elmer J., born March 29, 1888; Ray 
Charles, born May 11, 1890; Elva L, born 
April 22, 1893. 

ALFRED RICKS. 

That enterprise, public spirit, religious de- 
votion and patriotism are transmitted from 
generation to generation is as true as any 
other law of nature and this is not only the 
opinion of scientists, but the accepted belief 
of the people. It is with genuine satisfaction 
doubtless that Alfred Ricks, of whom we are 
writing, occasionally at least, entertains this 
reflection in contemplating the extensive op- 
erations, high positions and greatness of 
character with which the name of his honored 
father, the late President Ricks, is connected. 
He may also feel a justifiable pride in his own 
accomplishments, and in the honorable stand- 
ing to which he himself has attained among 
the people he has known and been associated 
with from childhood. He was born on No- 
vember 28, 1870, at Logan, Utah, a son of 
Pres. Thomas E. and Ellen M. (Gallup) 
Ricks, and an exhaustive history of his hon- 
ored father appears elsewhere in this volume. 

Active, vigorous and impetuous, Alfred 
Ricks was from his earliest boyhood anxious 
to get out into the world and wrest success 
by his own hands and exertions from the con- 
ditions of life, and from the age of nineteen 
years, when his initial labors for himself were 
commenced, he has manfully, courageously 
and successfully shown himself to be a suc- 
cessful man of affairs, equal to any emergency 
the great world of business has presented to 
him. Beginning life as a farmer, for seven 
years he also bought and sold all kinds of 
live stock, then, in association with his brother 



3 6 4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Ephraim, he engaged in sheepraising opera- 
tions of scope and importance, in 1892 taking 
up his present home of 160 acres from the 
government. The brothers have added to this 
land until they jointly own 500 acres of land 
that is especially adapted to the special de- 
partment of stockraising to which they are de- 
voting their energies. In association also with 
his brother, he introduced to this section one 
of the first threshing machine outfits, which 
for fourteen seasons they have conducted 
greatly to the benefit of the settlers. Their 
farming operations have attained large pro- 
portions, raising annually from 20,000 to 30,- 
000 bushels of grain and an average of 300 
tons of hay, while at the present time they are 
extensive producers of hogs, as well as own- 
ers of large bands of sheep. 

In the construction of the irrigating canals 
and ditches of the section, Mr. Ricks has done 
his full share, aiding in building the pioneer 
ones as well as those of a later period, and. at 
the present writing, he holds stock in five of 
the canal companies, and, having been a di- 
rector in the Teton Island Irrigation Canal 
Co., from its organization, he has been its ef- 
ficient president since 1898. Mr. Ricks struck 
off the lines of the mill of the Rexburg Mill- 
ing Co., and continued his labors on the 
structure from that incipiency until it was 
completed and in operation and for four years 
was a stockholder in the company. In political 
faith Mr. Ricks is a decided Republican, but has 
not as yet entered into the political arena in 
search of office. In the Church of Latter Day 
Saints his capability for successfully holding 
ufhcial positions has been amply recognized, 
he having been ordained to all the offices from 
deacon to high priest, of which latter office he 
is now the incumbent. 

The first wife of Mr. Ricks. Mary Roberts, 
died in January. 1892, aged twenty-one years, 
leaving no issue, and on January 18, 1894, he 



was again married, the bride being Miss Win- 
ifred L. Roberts, a daughter of John L. and 
Mary A. (Ensign) Roberts, natives of Wales, 
her paternal grandparents coming to Brig- 
ham City, Utah, when the father was an in- 
fant. He attained manhood in Utah, was mar- 
ried in Salt Lake City, afterwards conducted 
farming and stockraising operations at Malad 
City, Idaho, until the removal of the family 
in Rexburg in 1885, and here he located mi the 
farm in Salem ward, about four miles north- 
east of Rexburg, where he now resides. 
There are four bright and interesting children 
in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Kicks : Mary 
A., Ellen L., Alfred and Lee. 

HENRY E. RIGBY. 

In the growth and development of Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, among the early leaders of 
the successful movement were two men of 
more than ordinary character, men peculiarly 
adapted for the work they were appointed to 
do in this locality and in this work the}- were 
harmoniously united, each being especially 
adapted to certain phases of the enterprise and 
both laboring hand in hand to produce 
the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber. We refer to Pres. Thomas E. 
Ricks and Pres. William F. Rigby, the hon- 
ored father of the immediate subject of this 
mention, an extended sketch of whom will be 
found on other pages in this volume. 

Henry E. Rigby was born on August 26. 
1869, at Wellsville, Utah, a son of William F. . 
and Sophia (Eckersell) Rigby, the mother now 
residing at Alta, Teton Basin. Wyo. Un- 
til he was twenty-one years of age Henry E. 
Rigby had the usual lot of the boys and young 
men of the place and period, except perhaps 
that greater attention was paid to his education 
and mental discipline, and he was employed in 
useful activities until he became of age and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



365 



for five years thereafter. In 189 1 he took up 
a homestead of 160 acres and a desert claim 
of 160 acres at A'lta, Wyo., and devoted his 
energies to the development of the land and 
its cultivation, connecting with it the raising 
of cattle and horses. 

In 1900, Mr. Rigby gave his attention to 
the development of manufacturing interests, es- 
tablishing in that year, in association with his 
brother-in-law, W. H. Osborn, a knitting mill 
at Rexburg. Idaho, after the first year's 
operation purchasing the interest of Mr. 
Osborn, and taking into a partnership re- 
lation his brother, Martin C. Rigby. The 
amount of their business has far sur- 
passed their expectations, and they have 
been unable to produce goods sufficiently 
fast to supply their customers, being at the 
the present writing much behind their orders. 
Such is the favorable outlook for the future that 
the brothers are contemplating a large addition 
to their mill and machinery to increase its ca- 
pacity threefold. 

In politics Mr. Rigby is an earnest sup- 
porter of the policies of the Republican party, 
but has no wish nor desire for official place or 
honors. In the Church of Latter Day Saints 
he has rendered valuable service, holding the 
office of counsellor to the bishop of Alta ward, 
Wyo., from 1897 to 1901. Upon his removal 
to Rexburg, his present residence, he tendered 
his resignation, and at Rexburg he was conse- 
crated as high priest in 1897, and is now filling 
that office. 

At Logan, Cache county, Utah, on July 14, 
1897, Mr. Rigby was united in marriage with 
Miss Anna Osborn, a daughter of David and 
Nancy (Thorne) Osborn. For further refer- 
ence to ancestry see sketch of David Osborn, 
elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs.' Rigby 
have been blessed with four interesting chil- 
dren, who bid fair to maintain the high repu- 
tation of their ancestors: Ula O.. deceased. 



born June 17, 1898; William H., born Sep- 
tember 3, 1899; Bianca, born December 8, 
1 901 ; Bryant O., born on August 31, 1902. 
The family occupies an honored place in the 
society of the county and is ever found in the 
van of all work of improvements, public ben- 
efit or private beneficence, and Mr. Rigby is 
considered as one of the best types of business 
men of the Twentieth Century, being live, alert 
and up-to-date, while his probity, earnestness 
and sterling worth combine to make him a val- 
ued and popular citizen of the county. 

PRES. W. F. RIGBY. 

One of the prominent old-timers of Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, a man of activity and 
great usefulness in church and state, the dis- 
tinguished gentleman whose name heads this 
review was not content merely to hold exist- 
ence in the rapid development of the county 
where he early made his home, but his wonder- 
ful and versatile personality was impressed on 
every form of its civilized progress, was at the 
front of every business movement of public 
utility and largely influenced for good its edu- 
cational and religious development. President 
Rigby was born in Lancashire, England, on 
January 29, 1833, learned there the trade of 
cotton-spinning, but in his twentieth year he 
cast in his lot with that branch of the people of 
God in whose interests he gave unwearied serv- 
ices for so many years, and the same year, 1853, 
he wielded a lash in the guidance of an ox team 
"the plains across" to Utah. After seven 
years residence in Salt Lake City and Lehi, 
Utah, from i860 to 1867, his home was in 
Wellsville, in the Cache Valley, and from that 
period dates his wonderful career as an organ- 
izer and a creator. 

Closely connected from that time with that 
grand old character, Thomas E. Ricks, thev 
mutually inspired and aided each other in their 



3 66 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



beneficent labors. They demonstrated the 
practicability of dry farming in the Cache Val- 
ley, and were joint partners in successful 
sheepraising and other business operations of 
magnitude. Holding with unsurpassed ability 
and unction the office of bishop of Clarkston for 
four years, Mr. Rigby was consecrated the 
bishop of a "new town" in the near vicinity of 
Clarkston. He drove the first stakes of the 
place, which he named Newton, laid out the 
townsite, surveyed the contiguous territory. 
erected the first house of worship, established 
the first Sunday-school and. to supply the town 
with water, planned and located a reservoir, 
which under his discriminating supervision 
was so constructed as to permanently supply all 
needed demands. As bishop of Newton ward 
he was continued for seventeen consecutive 
years, during which time he held a captain's 
commission in the infantry service, and, in 
1878, was a member of the first state constitu- 
tional convention of Utah. 

From 1879 much of his interest and care 
was bestowed on the erecting and developing 
of Fremont county ; in that year he became 
connected with the lumbering and sawmilling 
operations in Beaver Canyon, and. when Ban- 
nock stake was organized, he was chosen by 
President Ricks as first counsellor, being set 
apart for that purpose at Logan, Utah, on 
April 11, 1884. From that time his diversified 
energies were fully employed in aiding his su- 
perior in the bringing in of the pioneers of 
Rexburg. and also in the locating, establish- 
ment and colonization of forty-four settlements 
in the Snake River Valley, and it is universally 
conceded that much of the successful accom- 
plishment of this great enterprise was due to 
the wisdom, sagacity and practical ability of 
Mr. Rigby. 

In association with Bishop Ricks he estab- 
lished the first saw. shingle, lath and grist- 
mills of the region on the forks of the Snake 



River, building there the first "buhr" gristmill 
within a radius of 170 miles in 1894. and their 
united efforts and untiring zeal in the welfare 
of the colonists will never be effaced from the 
memory of the people whom they unselfishly 
served. They aided and encouraged the col- 
onists in the fencing of their fields, in the 
building of irrigating ditches and canals, in the 
development of towns and villages, in the 
maintenance of religious services and the build- 
ing up of schools. This was continued, not for 
one season only, but for year after year, until 
the children of the first settlement had attained 
mature years and until Death set his signet 
upon the brows of both of the co-workers. 

As a member of the Idaho state Legisla- 
ture in its fourth session. Mr. Rigby served 
with conceded ability, and through his associa- 
tion there with S. IV. Eccles. of the Oregon 
Short Line Railroad, he was later able to se- 
cure the building of the railroad from Idaho 
Falls to St. Anthony. He was persistent, as- 
siduous and triumphant in his earnest efforts to 
secure the establishment of the Fremont Stake 
Academy, and as president of the stake his la- 
bors were abundantlv blessed. His name is 
perpetuated in the rapidly advancing town of 
Rigby, the postoffice at that place receiving his 
name at its establishment. On March 16, 1901, 
at Logan. Utah, the spirit of this remarkable 
man left its earthly tenement and southeastern 
Idaho then mourned the loss of one of its wis- 
est citizens, who accomplished more for his fel- 
lowmen in the sixty-eight years of his life than 
has been the record of the whole world during 
some centuries of time. 

HON. HYRUM RICKS. 

It is an old-time axiom that "blood will 
tell" and there is doubtless much in heredity 
that capacitates or incapacitates a nun for 
engaging in the strenuous battle of life, but 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



367 



more, much more, is there in the organization 
of the individual himself, a strong, well-de- 
veloped physique, dominated by a magnetic 
and masterful mentality, being ever the key 
to success in every department of the world's 
activities, and, as an evidence of the truth 
of this proposition, the notable career of 
Hon. Hyrum Ricks, late probate judge of 
Fremont county, Idaho, stands forth con- 
spicuously. A son of the heroic founder of 
Rexburg and the settlement of its vicinage, 
he inherited many of the sterling physical 
and mental characteristics of his honored sire, 
and, although modest and unostentatious in 
his nature, he stands today in the foremost 
ranks of the energetic, progressive and pros- 
perous citizens of his county and his merits 
and ability are universally recognized. 

Judge Ricks was born in Farmington, 
Utah, on July 24, 1858, being a son of Presi- 
dent Thomas E. Ricks and his wife Tabitha 
(Hendricks) Ricks, and in the cultured at- 
mosphere of the paternal home and in the 
excellent schools of Logan he acquired a 
scholastic education of solidity and value, 
being graduated from the Logan high 
school at the age of eighteen, fully equipped 
as an instructor of youth, and for two years 
•thereafter he was a popular and successful 
teacher, then, when only twenty years of age, 
engaging in merchandising at Logan, show- 
ing such financial ability and intuitive knowl- 
edge of the basic laws of trade as at once to 
forge to the front, becoming a mercantile 
leader and building up a rarely profitable 
business with marvelous rapidity. "From 
1879 to J 884 everything he touched seemed 
to prosper." The great financial panic of 
1884 closed in upon him and reduced him to 
poverty, his inherent honesty impelling him 
to relinquish every dollar of his resources 
toward the liquidation of his obligations. 
Now followed a series of years of toil, met 



with courag'e and an invincible determination 
to again attain a solid footing on the financial 
ladder, and his duties were well and uncom- 
plainingly fulfilled. 

An ardent and consistent member of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints from boyhood, 
in 1888 his qualities for successful missionary 
labor were recognized by the church au- 
thorities and he was sent to Great Britain on 
mission service, and here the high standard 
of his personal character, and the enthusiasm 
and eloquence with which he expounded the 
religious doctrine in which he so thoroughly 
believed, met with such g'ood results that 
during the two years of his foreign residence 
his ministrations were well rewarded. In 
1894 Mr. Ricks made his home in Rexburg 
and from the date of his arrival there he has 
been one of the conspicuous men of the town 
and county. His subsequent record has been 
so ably written by another pen that we 
adopt it as our own. 

"In 1896 he engaged in the real-estate 
business in Rexburg and has done perhaps 
more advertising of the resources of the 
Snake River Valley than any other man in 
Fremont county. In the fall of 1896 he took 
an active part in politics and gave his splen- 
did abilities toward the organization of the 
Democratic party of Fremont county, and was 
selected as one of the Democratic central 
committee. At the beginning of the 1897 
term of the Idaho Legislature, through the 
influence of Senator Thomas E. Bassett, sec- 
onded by Senator Joseph C. Rich, afterward 
the presiding judge of the Fifth judicial dis- 
trict of the state, Mr. Ricks was chosen as 
engrossing clerk of the state Senate, which 
position he filled with ability and honor. Dur- 
ing the campaign of 1898 Mr. Ricks again 
proffered his assistance to his party, having 
no idea of becoming a candidate for any po- 
litical or public office, and, not until he had 



368 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



been urged and urged repeatedly did he con- 
sent to accept of the nomination to the office 
of probate judge of Fremont county." 

Mr. Ricks has ever contended that the 
office should seek the man and not the man 
the office, and the overwhelmingly large vote 
at the polls which elected him as probate 
judge evinced that the office here sought the 
man, and also his great popularity among 
the people at large, his supporters being by 
no means confined to the ranks of his own 
political party. In the discharge of his of- 
ficial duties. Judge Ricks more than fulfilled 
the high expectations of his friends. 

HARRY L. CANNON. 

In this publication are records of many 
men who have been important aids in trans- 
forming this section of the Rocky Mountain 
country from a wilderness into its present 
civilized condition and are day by day adding 
by their productive endeavors to the sum 
total of the wealth of the state. They figure 
prominently in the business, social and public 
life of their respective communities, each in 
his especial field contributing to the advance- 
ment of the whole, and to the well-being of 
the various interests of the state. Such men 
are most assuredly entitled to specific mention 
in a work of this character, and among those 
who stand in this class is Harry L. Cannon, 
the popular merchant and postmaster of 
Driggs postoffice, who, although compar- 
atively a young man, has prominently con- 
nected himself with the affairs of the com- 
munity and attained to a niche in the indus- 
trial and commercial history of the countv. 

Mr. Cannon was born on November 4, 
1869, at Martinsburg. Butler county. Pa., 
the son of John and Elizabeth (Say) Can- 
non, the father, a native of the same state, de- 
scending from early Colonial American an- 



cestors and honoring the family name by his 
thorough grasp of business principles, his 
bold and vigorous character and the unspotted 
integrity of his life, being a large contractor 
in lumbering operations in western Pennsyl- 
vania, and as a Republican serving as the 
sheriff of Butler county with conceded ability, 
and to the decided interests of law and order. 
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Cannon was 
Henry Cannon, the Irish emigrant, who, with 
his wife and family, early in the Nineteenth 
Century settled near Martinsburg, Pa., then 
a small village, and became a prosperous 
farmer. His wife, Elizabeth, was a native of 
Scotland, and by her untiring energy and 
praiseworthy thrift she was a pronounced 
factor in attaining the liberal competence their 
united endeavors brought to them. The 
mother of Mr. Cannon of this review was also 
a native of the Keystone state, being the daugh- 
ter of John and Elizabeth Say, emigrants from 
Ireland, who became citizens of Pennsylvania 
in very early married life and did valuable 
service in the pioneer labors of the county 
where they made their residence, the mother 
becoming the mother of six children and clos- 
ing her earthly life in 1875 at the early age 
of thirty-four years, when her son, Harry L., 
was but six years of age. 

Mr. Cannon was a natural student, and. 
after exhausting the educational resources of 
the public schools in the vicinity of the 
parental home, he became a student at the 
North Hope State Normal School in Butler 
county, leaving however the humdrum of the 
schools at the age of fifteen to take a course in 
the school of practical experience, which in 
his case effectively supplemented the instruc- 
tion heretofore received, for he enlisted when 
about fifteen years of age in the regular army 
of the United States, where he was assigned 
to Company D, Seventeenth United States 
Infantry. With this gallant organization he 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA, COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



37i 



was in service for five years, his merit and de- 
portment causing his appointment as a non- 
commissioned officer, serving as such during 
the greater part of this period of enlistment. 
His military service brought him to the West, 
where he was honorably mustered out at the 
expiration of his time, when, in 1890, he was 
stationed at Fort Bridger, Wyo. From that 
year he has been identified with the West, go- 
ing from Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City and 
eighteen months later making his home in 
Sandy, Utah, there remaining until April, 
1895, when Idaho invited him to give his serv- 
ices in the great warfare she was maintaining 
with the undeveloped forces of nature and of- 
fered him a substantial reward for his services, 

In this prolific section of the state he 
filed on a homestead of 160 acres in the Teton 
Basin and immediately threw the whole force 
of his energetic and capable nature into the 
irrigation and development of his property, 
and into the stockraising operations he there 
initiated. Engaging in mercantile business 
at Driggs, on January 28, 1901, he was com- 
missioned postmaster at that place and is the 
present incumbent of that office, performing 
its duties to the marked satisfaction of the 
patrons, and in his merchandising receiving a 
most generous patronage by reason of his fair 
dealing, his courteous and accommodating 
manners and his merits as a man and citizen. 
Politically he is a Republican, while fraternally 
he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, 
having been the master-at-arms of his local 
lodge at Sandy, Utah, where he retains his 
membership. 

On January 19, 1891, Mr. Cannon mar- 
ried with Miss Alma Oberg, born on July 18, 
1870, a daughter of O. O. and Carrie 
(Nicholson) Oberg, emigrants from Sweden 
to Utah, where they are now living at West 
Jordan. On May 9, 1903, Mrs. Cannon 
passed from life and was buried at West Jor- 
dan cemetery in Salt Lake countv, Utah. 



NATHAN RICKS. 

Southeastern Idaho has possessed many 
prominent citizens, but in all of the number can 
be found no one more truly a representative 
man nor more widely and actively awake to the 
interests . of the people at large than Nathan 
Ricks, the popular resident of Rexburg, Fre- 
mont county. A self-made man in the fullest 
sense of the term, by his own energy and un- 
tiring endeavors he has attained a high degree 
of prosperity and has the distinction of being 
one of the most universally respected and influ- 
ential citizens of the county with which he has 
been connected for so many years. He was 
born at Centerville, Utah, on January 17, 1853, 
a son of Joel and Eleanor (Martin) Ricks, na- 
tives of Kentucky, who shortly after their mar- 
riage established a home near Alton, 111., where 
the father became a farmer and stockraiser on 
a large tract of valuable land which he owned 
and cultivated for quite a period of years. Cast- 
ing in his lot with the persecuted Mormons 
who were then transferring their possessions 
to the far-distant western land of Deseret, in 
1848, the family crossed the plains with horse 
and ox teams, and located at Centerville, Davis 
county, Utah, acquiring title to a fine estate 
where farming and stockraising operations 
were conducted until 1858, when the father be- 
came the pioneer settler of Logan, Cache 
county, where he took up land and built the 
first house erected on the site of the future city 
and there he resided, holding an honored place 
in the esteem of the people, until death came to 
him at the venerable age of eighty-five years, 
in 1889, the mother of the subject of this re- 
view having preceded him to the other life 
in 188 1. 

Nathan Ricks, the youngest of eleven chil- 
dren, filially gave his time and attention to the 
affairs of the paternal homestead until he was 
twenty-seven years of age, when, purchasing a 
farm six miles from Logan, he there extensively 



372 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



engaged in the raising of horses and cattle, in 
connection with farming, until 1889. when, hav- 
ing investigated the merits of the Upper Snake 
River Valley, he sold his property at Logan 
and transferred his residence to Rexburg, 
where he became the superintendent of the Rex- 
burg Milling Co.. and under his supervision the 
mills were erected and run for three years, he 
being at the same time interested in cattle rais- 
ing operations of scope and importance which 
he closed out in 1895, thereafter engaging in 
the sheep industry on an extensive scale, incor- 
porating the Ricks Sheep Co., to. which he gives 
his entire time and attention, being a direc- 
tor, the president and the capable manager of 
its operations. He is also a stockholder in the 
Rexburg Irrigation Co. and in the Rexburg 
City Canal Co., and in man)' ways labors for 
the general welfare. 

Mr. Ricks has ever been an intelligent par- 
ticipant in all public matters of a general and 
of a local character, as a Republican, serving 
as a delegate in county, district and state con- 
ventions, and in 1896, without his wish or 
knowledge, he was placed in nomination for 
state senator, receiving over 500 votes in Fre- 
mont county, but owing to the exigencies of 
the campaign failing of an election. In religious 
affiliation Mr. Ricks has ever been loyal to the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, and in 188 1 he 
was called to mission work in New Zealand, 
where for two years he rendered effective serv- 
ice for the church. He has also held in grada- 
tion of all the church offices up to high priest," 
which he is holding at this writing. In all of 
the social circles of the section Mr. Ricks and 
family have a pronounced and an active place 
and part, the home being a center of hospitality, 
where their numerous friends ever meet a most 
cordial reception. 

At Salt Lake City on November 14, 1879, 
Mr. Ricks wedded Miss Sarah A. Tavlor. a 



daughter of Edward and Sarah (Turner) Tay- 
lor, who came from England in 1849 to share 
in the dangers, discomforts and deprivations 
endured in crossing the plains at that early 
period as member of ox trains and handcart 
brigades, after their arrival at Salt Lake City 
making the place the permanent family home. 
There the father died in 1894, at the age of 
sixty years, the mother, who has attained sev- 
enty-one years of life, being still a resident of 
Salt Lake. Mrs. Sarah Ricks died on May 2. 
1890, at the age of thirty-eight years, leaving 
six children: Nathan R., born October 4. 
1880; Eva A., born January 28, 1882 ; Eleanor 
T., born May 14. 1884; Mary E., born April 
3, 1886 ; Alfred T„ born October 25. 1888 ; Joel 
E., born October 18, 1889. On June 18. 1891, 
at Logan, Utah, occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Ricks and Mrs. Jeannette W. (McKinley) 
James, a daughter of Robert and Isabell 1 
(Watson) McKinley, natives of Scotland, who 
settled at Provo, Utah, in 1875, the father be- 
ing a mason and a farmer and removing with 
his family to Teton City. Fremont county. 
Idaho, in 1887. there taking up a homestead and 
continuing work at his dual occupations until 
called from earth on December 24, 1901, the 
mother still maintaining her home on the land. 
By her first marriage Mrs. Ricks had two chil- 
dren. John W. James, born July 17, 1884, and 
Isabel, horn February 21, 1887. This marriage 
of Mr. Ricks has been a most harmonious one, 
and through it six children have come to en- 
liven and cheer the home : Karl Y.. born April 
28, 1892; Edna I., born November 9, 1893: 
Owen R.. born August 29. 1895 : Sarah J., horn 
August 20. 1897; Agnes, born June 10. 1899: 
Francis S.. horn May 11. 1901. The oldest 
daughter of Mr. Ricks is the only one of the 
twelve children who has married. She was 
united to E. A. Neeley. of Rexburg, at Salt 
Lake' City, on October 24. 1901. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



373 



PRESIDENT THOMAS E. RICKS. 

One of the leaders of civilization and of 
religious thought in southeastern Idaho 
passed away when President Thomas E. 
Ricks, the first president of the Fremont 
stake, was called to pass through the deep 
waters of the river of death on September 
25, 1901. Tracing his history from boyhood, 
he is ever found a leader. Bold, intrepid, 
daring, fertile in plans and resources, with 
magnificent physical proportions and a force- 
ful magnetism which compelled the obedience 
and the willing cooperation of others, he 
stands out in bold relief one of the notable 
figures of the pioneer days, being ever at the 
front whenever danger presented itself, 
whether it came in the shape of wily foemen, 
white or savage, being ready to face death to 
protect his people from hostile attack or from 
the perils of starvation when battling with 
the rude forces of elemental nature on the 
bleak plains of the Western wilds. He was a ' 
man of heroic mold both in mind and body, 
and a review of his active career is demanded 
in this volume as an essential part of the 
history, of southeastern Idaho. 

President Ricks was born in that portion 
of Kentucky now Christian county,' on July 
21, 1828, a son of Joel and Elinor (Martin) 
Ricks, of German ancestry, the name in the 
Fatherland being a noble one and spelled 
"Rex." In 1830 he removed with his parents 
to Madison county, 111., where, on a tract of 
400 fertile acres, they became active pioneer 
farmers until 1845, developing an elegant 
estate. In 1844, while using - his immense 
strength in the subjugation of an untamed 
horse, the animal fell upon him, crushing his 
left thigh so seriously as to leave a permanent 
injury. In 1841 the family became converts 
of the Church of Latter Day Saints, but 
Thomas did not join its communion until 



February 18, 1845, and in the following Sep- 
tember all of the family removed to Nauvoo, 
where Thomas labored in the erection of the 
Temple until labor thereon was suspended. 

Ordained as an elder in October, 1845, 
on February 8, 1846, he started as one of the 
earliest pioneers in that grand westward 
movement of the church which has meant so 
much to the West, and, stopping at Council 
Bluffs until April, 1848, he then with his 
parents continued the journey westward in 
Heber C. Kimball's company, on June 23d 
arriving at the Elkhorn River. Here in bat- 
tle with hostile Indians he was shot with three 
rifle balls that were never extracted, fell from 
his horse, and was left by the Indians as 
dead. He was later rescued, carried off the 
field and floated across the Elkhorn River in 
a buffalo robe. 

Arriving in. the Salt Lake Valley on Sep- 
tember 24, 1848, in 1849 the family located at 
Centerville, Utah, and from that year Thomas 
E. Ricks was an active factor in the assist- 
ance of settlers, the dissemination of the doc- 
trines of the church and in the formation of 
new communities. In 1856 he was sent with 
others to California, where, at Los Vegas, 
they 'built a fort and opened up farms, he re- 
turning in October, 1857, to go to the re- 
lief of Captain Martin's handcart company, in 
trouble on the plains. In 1858 he went to 
Salmon River, Idaho, and rescued Captain 
Smith's company from their serious Indian 
difficulties, the expedition safely bringing the 
colony to Utah. In 1859 he located at Logan, 
Utah, and there, as a citizen and a prominent 
member of the high council, he labored for 
many effective years. In 1869 he was en- 
gaged in mission work in Kentucky, Illinois 
and Ohio. In the early seventies he was 
actively concerned in grading contracts on 
the Utah Northern Railway from Ogden to 
Franklin, and in 1877 was one of the two con- 



374 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tractors engaged in laying the railroad track 
from Franklin to Bntte. Mont., completing 
the work to Blackfoot in 1878, to Modina in 
1879, and to Butte in December. 1880. In 
1 88 1 he had profitable contracts on the 
Northern Pacific. 

In December, 1882. Mr. Ricks was called 
to act as bishop of the Bannock ward of the 
Cache Valley stake, embracing all the coun- 
try from the north of Portneuf Canyon at 
Pocatello as far north, east and west as the 
colonies of the Mormon church should extend, 
and. on January 4, 1883, he started for Egin, 
Idaho, arriving there the next day. and soon 
was on the present site of Rexburg, where 
they concluded to establish the center of a 
new colony, this trip being made to locate 
such a center of religious, educational and 
commercial enterprises, and to prepare the 
country for the rapid colonization to come 
thither. The first company of emigrants ar- 
rived at Eagle Rock on January 25. 1883, 
and on March nth the site of Rexburg was 
again visited and made definitely the nucleus 
of the new movement and received its name 
in honor of the bishop. 

At this incipent city Bishop Ricks, in as- 
sociation with others, used the large means 
at his command in the establishment of a 
store, grist, saw, shingle and lath mills, built 
several substantial and comfortable homes, 
and succeeded in accomplishing the settle- 
ment of nearly all the members of his large 
family in close proximity to the paternal 
residence, and also established and main- 
tained a ferry over Henry's Fork of the 
Snake River. His progressive spirit, his en- 
terprise, and his deep religious devotion were 
by far the greatest elements in the success 
of the development of this section, but his 
zeal and generous heart caused him to ex- 
tend such bountiful credit to the poorer set- 
tlers that his last years were hampered by 



financial difficulties, which, however, never 
broke the elastic hope and courage which 
were integral portions of his grand nature, 
and, in fact, "The Grand Old Man of Fre- 
mont county" is a worthy appellation of this 
noble pioneer. His death occurred on Sep- 
tember 25, 1 901, and all the county mourned. 

JOHN L. ROBERTS. 

Possibly there is no resident of Fremont 
county who has experienced more hardships, 
privation, and suffering on account of adher- 
ence to the practice of the doctrines of his relig- 
ious faith than has John L. Roberts, of this re- 
view, and in coming time the simple story of 
his experiences will be looked upon as akin 
to those of the Quakers and Baptists of Xew 
England in the early Colonial days. He was 
born on January n. 1850, at Merionethshire. 
Wales, the son of Daniel and Winifred (Lloyd) 
Roberts, who emigrated to the United States in 
1850. David died on the Mississippi River in 
the state of Kentucky of cholera in 1852. and 
his widow the next year remarried with David 
R. Evans, with whom she and her children 
crossed the plains to Utah in one of the usual 
ox trains of the period (as did his brother, Wil- 
liam, three years of age), being left a widow 
without having other than the Welsh language 
and not an acquaintance in the country, settling 
in the new town of Brigham City, where every- 
thing evil seemed to conspire against the com- 
ing of civilization, hostile Indians being on the 
warpath, swarms of crickets and enormous 
grasshoppers destroving the first green leaves 
of the few growing crops of the settlers, besides 
the other numerous sufficient difficulties inci- 
dent to life in pioneer locations. The courage 
and perseverance of these early settlers were 
truly heroic, for they battled on and on. outlast- 
ing and surviving all of the dread plague oppos- 
ing their success, and with increasing prosper- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



375 



ity. Mr. Evans and family resided at Brigham 
City, where Mr. Evans died in 1862, until 1872, 
when the family changed its residence to 
Oneida county, Idaho, where they engaged in 
agricultural operations. The mother is now 
passing the closing years of a productive and 
devout life on the Oneida county homestead, 
having attained the venerable age of eighty- 
two years on November 13, 1903. 

Before he had attained his majority John 
L. Roberts was conducting fanning and stock- 
raising for himself at Brigham City, Utah, and 
in 1872 he migrated to Oneida county, Idaho, 
there continuing cumulative and prosperous 
stockraising and farming operations, princi- 
pally attending to the raising of horses and cat- 
tle, until 1884, when, realizing the advantages 
that would accrue frorn availing himself of his 
homestead right in the Upper Valley of the 
Snake River, he removed to the infant settle- 
ment of Rexburg, filed on 160 acres of fertile 
land, and there he now resides, having wonder- 
fully improved and developed this property, 
adding to his acreage seventy-seven other acres 
by purchase, and still being engaged in stock- 
raising, having, however, changed the stock in 
a large measure from cattle to sheep, of which 
he owns a fine band. The improvement of his 
land necessarily required as the first thing the 
bringing of water to the thirsty desert ground, 
and so Mr. Roberts was early at work on the 
irrigation canals of his locality, and he has been 
a director of the Teton Island Canal Co. for a 
number of years. Shortly after the Bannock 
stake of Zion was organized Mr. Roberts was 
made a member of the high council and now 
holds the office. In 1899 he was elected as a 
schooil trustee and after a full term of very ac- 
ceptable service, was re-elected in 1903. 

It is, however, with his connection with the 
Church of Latter Day Saints and his practical 
carrying out the tenets of his faith that Mr. 
Roberts has become an historic character and a 



martyr to his convictions of truth. He married 
on November 29, 1869, with Miss Mary A. 
Ensign at Salt Lake City and was living with 
her when, in 1881, he was united with Miss 
Elizabeth A. Dredge. On coming to Rexburg 
in 1884, he was made a counsellor to Bishop 
Thos. E. Ricks, of Rexburg ward, and held the 
office until 1887. At this period of time the 
United States authorities commenced a most 
bitter crusade against the Mormons, to enforce 
the Edmunds anti-polygamy law. Many of the 
saints were driven into exile for years and nu- 
merous fines and imprisonments followed. The 
first arrests in Fremont count}- were those of 
John L. Roberts, of Rexburg, and William 
Pratt, of Wilford, who were both arrested for 
"unlawful cohabitation" and taken to the Unit- 
ed States district court, then in session at Black- 
foot. Mr. Roberts pleaded guilty and was sen- 
tenced to serve four months of imprisonment in 
the United States penitentiary at B'oise, and to 
pay a fine of $300. He served the time, paid 
the fine, and returned home, but passed the 
year of 1886 in rapid movements through Utah 
to evade the Federal marshals who were in 
search of him to rearrest him on the same 
charge. 

In 1887, he worked in Montana for a time, 
then went to Alberta, Canada, returning to 
Montana early in 1888, in the fall returning 
to Rexburg, where he was once more arrested 
for "unlawful cohabitation" and tried and con- 
victed, but, on account of the condition of his 
family, he was permitted to remain at home 
until the next spring before sentence was 
passed upon him, when he was sentenced to pay 
a fine of $150, his attorneys' fees amounting to 
$150 more. His first wife died on August 6, 
1894. She was a daughter of Martin L. and 
Mary (Dunn) Ensign, who moved from the 
Eastern states to Salt Lake City in 1852, later 
removing to Brigham City, where they now re- 
side, having each attained the Biblical "three- 



376 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



score and ten" years of life. The children of 
this marriage are: Mary A., Daniel L., Wini- 
fred L., Martin L., John L., David E., died 
when nine months old, Horace E., Prentice N., 
Georgiana C. and Henry C. The parents of the 
second wife were Jesse and Ellen (Reese) 
Dredge, natives of England, who came from 
that country direct to Utah in 1861, locating 
first at Kaysville, Utah, and five years later 
moving to Malad, Idaho, where they now live, 
the father being seventy-five years of age and 
the mother sixty-six. The children of the sec- 
ond union of Mr. Roberts are: Ellen E., died 
at nine years of age, Catharine, Jesse L., Wil- 
liam C. and Addie. 

AMOS ROBINSON. 

There is an innate and original fitness in 
many men for certain lines of activity, and 
when given opportunity in those lines they 
demonstrate this fact and make a life suc- 
cess of their chosen business or profession. 
And it is worthy of remark that Mr. Amos 
Robinson, one of the representative farmers 
and residents of Bingham county, Idaho, has 
this fitness of conducting agricultural enter- 
prises in the various departments that are 
suited to and are successful in this section of 
the West, this fitness having been quickened 
and cultivated by a wide experience. Mr. 
Robinson is a native of Farmington, Utah, 
where he was born on July 6, 1854, a son of 
Joseph L. and Lydia (Foster) Robinson, the 
father being of that old New England stock 
which has long held prominent place in the 
Eastern states, himself a native of Vermont, 
where he grew to early manhood, thence join- 
ing the Mormon emigrants, going to Utah 
and crossing the plains with an ox train in 
1848, when the grand results achieved by the 
energetic efforts of the great Mormon people 
were but in their incipient infancy. 



He located for a time in the Salt Lake 
Valley, soon, however, removing to Farming- 
ton in Davis county, where he had the distinc- 
tion of being one of the early pioneers and 
where he made his home until his death, on 
New Year's morning, 1903, at the venerable 
age of eighty-two years. An intelligent and 
useful member of society, he was a consist- 
ent adherent to the doctrines of his church. 
and at his death was holding the office of 
high priest. His wife was a daughter of 
Stephen Foster, who was born in Massachu- 
setts and became a member of the Mormon 
church, but died in the East before the im- 
migrations into Utah had commenced. His 
daughter, Lydia, was born on February 21, 
1850, at the family home at Farmington. 
where in the fullness of years she passed from 
earth. 

Mr. Robinson attended the excellent 
schools of Farmington until he was twenty- 
two years of age, assisting in the farm labors 
and the home duties between times, there- 
after engaging in business for himself in agri- 
cultural operations in Weber county, Utah. 
which he conducted for about eight years, 
when, in the fall of 1884, he came to Idaho, 
and immediately took up a pre-emption claim 
at his present location, nine miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls, which he exchanged for a tim- 
ber claim, also acquiring a homestead right 
and began the development of his home, 
which, after manifold improvements as a re- 
sult of his earnest efforts and his tireless 
energy, has grown wonderfully and he has 
prospered in proportion. On May 13, 1896. 
Miss Margaret Alexander, a native of Illinois 
and a daughter of David and Talitha Smith, 
became the wife of Mr. Robinson! Her 
father. David A. Smith, was a native of North 
Carolina, but passed the major portion of his 
life in Illinois, where all that is mortal of him 
now lies buried in Fountain cemeterv at Pul- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



2,77 



leys, in Williamson county. Her mother is 
a native of Alabama, at present maintaining 
her home in Idaho Falls, having come to 
Utah in 1889. 

Amos Robinson stands in close relations 
with the officials of the Mormon church, in 
which he has the distinction of being one of 
the Seventies. He has stood firmly by his 
faith and has won the admiration and respect 
of all men of integrity, while in political re- 
lations he has been marked in his adherency 
to the principles of the Republican political 
party, with which he has ever been in active 
accord. He is a truly representative citizen 
in all departments of public and private life, 
and the life work of such a man affords a 
pleasant theme for the pen of the biographer. 
He has ever borne himself with benefit to his 
fellows in many useful services and capacities, 
discharging the duties of every post which he 
has filled with fidelity and intelligence, while 
his financial ability, his high character and 
honorable dealing have won and retained for 
him the esteem and confidence of his business 
associates and a host of personal friends. Mr.- 
and Mrs. Robinson have these children, Wil- 
liam, Talitha and Emma. 

LEE S. ROBINSON. 

Much of the vitality which so unmistak- 
ably marks the West springs from the in- 
fusion of young blood into its industrial, po- 
litical and social life, and the young man is 
here a distinctive factor in nearly every com- 
munity. This is notably true in the virile 
young state of Idaho, and in this publication, 
whose province is the consideration of the 
progressive men of this section of the state, 
and its founders and builders, will be found 
reviews of many young men who are con- 
spicuously identified with its political and its 
agricultural affairs. One of this number, and 



distinctively'a son of the West, since his birth 
occurred in Weber count}', Utah, on Febru- 
ary 16, 1867, we must mention Lee S. Robin- 
son, who is one of the developing forces of 
civilization in Bingham county, Idaho, where 
he located his home and center of activities in 
1886, on his present homestead, which is situ- 
ated ten miles northeast of Idaho Falls. 

Mr. Robinson is the son of J. L. and Mary 
T. (Taylor) Robinson, the father being a 
member of a prominent New England fam- 
ily of that name, who was a native of the 
state of Vermont, where he passed his early 
life and until 1848, when, becoming identified 
with the Mormon church, he joined the mi- 
gration to the land of Utah, crossing the 
plains in one of the first ox trains of that 
magnificent tide of immigration that has 
brought so many useful citizens to aid in the 
development of the wonderful land of Utah, 
he becoming a settler of Farmington, Davis 
county, in that state, where he was the first 
Mormon bishop to reside north of Salt Lake 
City, and where he continued to abide until 
near the close of his life, when he came to 
Bingham county, soon however returning to 
his former home and there dying in 1892, at 
the venerable age of eighty-three years. He 
was a man of strong mental powers and de- 
cided opinions, one of the leaders of the Re- 
publican party in that section of the state. 
His wife, who was a native of England, after 
coming to Utah married William Simmon, 
after his death forming a matrimonial associ- 
ation with Mr. Robinson, whom she survived, 
dying in 1896, at the age of sixty-four years, 
at the residence of her son Lee at Ako, being 
the mother of nine children, and a daug'hter 
of Joseph and Harriet (Sidwells) Taylor. 

Lee S. Robinson was the eldest of his 
father's family and was thoroughly educated 
in the principles of agriculture on the home- 
stead in Weber county, Utah, at the age of 



378 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



eighteen years engaging for himself as a 
farmer in that county, and a year later in 
1886, coming- to Bingham county. Idaho, 
where in 1889 he located a homestead of 160 
acres at his present location, where he has 
since been profitably employed in improving 
a fine estate from the rough lands presented 
by nature, and has followed with industry 
and success both farming and stockraising, 
at the present time running herds of sheep of 
a superior quality and owning 600 head, his 
favorite being a cross between Lincoln and 
Frank. In all matters of local and public in- 
terest he is identified with the Democratic 
political party and holds a high place in the 
community. In the Mormon church Mr. 
Robinson is giving faithful service as an as- 
sistant Sunday school superintendent. 

On November 6, 1891, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Robinson and Miss Anna J. 
Peterson, a native of Idaho and a daughter 
of Andrew C. and Nina Maria (Masen) Peter- 
son, whose parents emigrated from Denmark 
to America, and are now residing on a pro- 
ductive ranch in Bingham county. Mr. and 
Mrs. Robinson have four children: Joseph 
Lee, deceased ; Oliver L., George W. and 
Hazel. Mr. Robinson has paid particular at- 
tention to the horticultural interests of his sec- 
lion and by painstaking and earnest applica- 
tion he has succeeded in largely enhancing 
the value of his land by producing a fine 
orchard of well-chosen fruits upon his pro- 
ductive and well-cared-for estate. 

HENRY ROCK. 

Although not one of the earliest to settle 
in the Upper Snake River Valley of Idaho, still 
Henry Rock, who has been one of the progres- 
sive citizens of what is now Fremont county 
since 1890, can well be called a pioneer, since 
he, by thrift, energy and well-conserved appli- 



cation, has redeemed a large tract of land from 
a desert condition, where it was covered with 
sagebrush, wild rose bushes and willows, pro- 
ducing nothing for the benefit of man, until now 
his estate is ■ a model one, highly pro- 
ductive, well-irrigated and an attractive 
home, equal in appearance and products 
to any farm in this section of the state. 
if not superior to any. This result lias 
not been accomplished by idle dreaming 
or sitting with folded arms in philosophical 
musings. It has been attained by fully partici- 
pating in the active and diligent spirit of the 
men of impetuous, continuous, unceasing ac- 
tion, who have caused the states of the Great 
West to so rapidly come to the front in all 
manner of development and progress, and Mr. 
Rock is a good representative of the rugged 
class that has been and is still engaged in this 
work. 

He was born on November 14. 1834. in 
Franklin county, Pa., the family being a long 
established one in that portion of the state, his 
father, a farmer and a mason, dying on the old 
homestead in 1858 at the age of sixty-three 
years, the mother thereafter embracing the 
Mormon faith and, crossing the plains in 1859, 
with one of the numerous ox trains of that per- 
iod, upon her arrival in Utah she made a per- 
manent home at Mill Creek, where for the long 
period of twenty-five years she most excellently 
fulfilled all of the duties of her life. then, in 
1882. died at the venerable age of eighty year-, 
and was buried at Salt Lake City. After duti- 
ful and filial service to the interests of his fa- 
ther and mother, and under the effective tut- 
lageof the father acquiring a skillful knowledge 
of masonry, in 1855 Henry Rock commenced 
life for himself by going to Iowa and there fol- 
lowing his trade for four years, thence return- 
ing to his native state for one year, and. in 
t86o, going to Salt Lake City, where he con- 
tinued labors at his trade for two vears, there- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



379 



after moving to Farmington, Utah. Two years 
later he went to Morgan county, where he 
passed twenty-six years in mason work and 
farming operations, becoming the owner of 
twelve acres of land. 

In 1890, as before stated, the scene of his 
activities was transferred to Fremont county, 
where he has displayed the same sterling traits 
of character and diligent industry that had 
marked his residence elsewhere. Using his 
right of homesteading, he thereby secured 150 
acres of land on Teton Island, six and one-half 
miles north and west from Rexburg, and he 
has wrought an almost magical change in the 
property and is continuing this good work, con- 
tinuing his labors both in mason work and in 
diversified farming, his land 'annually bestow- 
ing on him large and valuable crops of hay, 
grain, etc., in return for the labor he has ex- 
pended upon it. 

Mr. Rock has aided in the construction of 
all of the irrigation canals of the vicinity of his 
residence, and in all manner of ways he has 
proved himself to be a most valuable citizen, 
winning popularity in social circles and taking 
a prominent and an active part in all public 
matters of a local interest and character, as a 
Democrat being elected by a flattering vote to 
the office of justice of the peace in 1896, hold- 
ing the office for two years, while in the Church 
of Latter Day Saints he has capably held the 
offices of deacon, teacher and elder, and is now 
a member of the Seventies, having also served 
with the approbation of his superiors in home 
mission work. 

Mr. Rock was united in marriage in 1859 
with Miss Leannah Robinson, a daughter of 
Alexander and Nancy (Waugheman) Robinson, 
of Franklin county, Pa. Her parents came to 
Utah in one of the early migrations, locating 
at Farmington for two years, thence removing 
to Morgan county, where the father died in 
1883 and the mother in 1885, both having bur- 



ial in North Morgan cemetery. The family of 
Mr. and Mrs. Rock has been rounded out dur- 
ing the passage of years by the arrival of chil- 
dren, of whom we hereunto attach the names : 
Elizabeth; Armanda; Henry, died in 1863, bur- 
ied at Farmington, Utah; William, died in 
1865, buried at Morgan, Utah; Jared; David: 
James ; Nancy ; Harry ; Albert ; Ernest. 

JARED ROCK. 

The gentleman whose name stands at the 
head of this review was born at Morgan, 
Utah, on August 24, 1866, the son of Henry 
and Leannah (Robinson) Rock, and for their 
history and ancestral data the reader can look 
at the sketch of Henry Rock, appearing on 
other pages of this volume. After giving ef- 
fective service to his parents' interests in the 
days of his youth, Jared Rock commenced his 
independent career by engaging in construc- 
tion work on the Union Pacific Railroad un- 
til he was fifteen years of age, when he be- 
gan to learn the mason's trade at Evanston, 
Wyo., finishing his apprenticeship in Salt 
Lake City, then, returning to Evanston, he 
was there employed in the railroad shops and 
later for four years was in the water service of 
the railroad. He came to Idaho in 1891, pur- 
chased eighty acres of land near Rexburg, 
which he has since increased to ninety acres, 
and engaged in mason work and-stonecutting, 
being the first contractor of the county in these 
industries. 

In the building of the Farmers' Consoli- 
dated Canal, Mr. Rock and his father con- 
tributed $1,500 in work on this canal for the 
water privilege. In association with his 
father he built the large brick store of the 
Rexburg. Cooperative Mercantile Institute, 
the finest edifice of Teton City, and he has 
been employed in the construction of nearly 
all of the brick and rock buildings erected in 



3 8o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the county, in 1902 erecting the Sharp. Heg- 
sted & Jensen block at Rexburg, and he was 
the first man to file on a stone quarry in the 
county, and also the first one to discover here 
a rock that would cut and polish sufficiently 
well to be used for grave stones, for which 
purpose he has now used it for ten years, it 
being equal to marble in appearance and dura- 
bility, though not susceptible of so high a 
polish. This discovery was made in the forks 
of the Snake River. 

Although prosperity has attended the 
well-directed and sustained endeavors of Mr. 
Rock, the struggles and hardships of the 
early days will ever solidly cling to his memory. 
All of the buildings on his father's ranch were 
burned and the labor of restoration devolved 
upon our subject, who, to obtain 100 pounds 
of flour for the needs of the family, offered 
$1,500 in good values as security for the pay- 
ment but could not obtain the flour. He then 
borrowed that amount of flour from a neigh- 
bor and to get the flour to' return he "grubbed" 
about five acres of sagebrush, and, wishing to 
give his personal attention to the opening 
of a brickyard, he employed five men to finish 
the grubbing, the total amount he thus had 
to pay for the flour was $27. 

He has been frequently injured. In get- 
ting out wood a few years since he had one 
of his legs crushed by a log rolling over it. 
and it was four months before he was again 
ready for business. He says that he had a 
premonition of this disaster, but paying no 
heed to the warning, he was injured. In 
political matters Mr. Rock has steadily sup- 
ported Democratic principles and candidates, 
and in the Mormon church he has been a 
deacon, a teacher and is now an elder. In 
all the relations of life, social, religious and 
civil, he is public-spirited, progressive, ever 
in the front of all good enterprises, and. with 
his popular family, stands high in the good 
graces of the people. 



At Salt Lake City, on December 22, 1897, 
Mr. Rock married with Miss Eliza Godfrey, 
a daughter of William and Lucy (Williams) 
Godfrey, who in the early clays settled as 
pioneers of North Ogden, Utah, where they 
were agriculturists for some years, there- 
after removing to Park Valley, Utah, thence 
in 1886 to Twin Grove, Fremont county, 
Idaho, and. in 1894, to Rexburg. but later 
returned to Twin Grove, where they are now 
living on the homestead of their daughter. 
Mrs. Rock, which is beautifully located near 
Fall River. 

A family of four interesting children have 
come to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rock. 
Lucy Leannah, born January 7. 1899, died 
January 8, 1901 ; Emanuel Henry, born Feb- 
ruary 27, 1900, died January 12, 1901 ; Veda 
June, born June 9, 1901 ; Eliza Giralda. born 
May 22, 1903. 

HENRY T. ROGERS. 

Although but forty-two years of age. Henry 
T. Rogers has made a record in business, in 
progressive and broad-minded citizenship and 
in church work that a much older man might 
well be proud of. He was born at Hyde Park. 
Utah, January 19, 1862. His parents, Thomas 
and Annie (Evans) Rogers, were natives of 
Wales. They were converted to the Mormon 
faith and afterward determined to make their 
home among the Latter Day Saints. They 
came to America in 1849 and lived for nine 
years near Council Bluffs. Iowa, where the fa- 
ther was engaged in farming and coalmining. 
While there they had four children, all of 
whom died. 

In 1858 the parents crossed the plains from 
their Iowa home to Utah, and after spending 
one winter at Woods Cross, about ten miles 
north of Salt Lake City, they settled in Cache 
Valley, four miles north of Logan, at a place 
now known as Hyde Park. They were pio- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



38i 



neers in the valley, being among the earliest 
settlers in that region. They engaged in farm- 
ing until the spring of 1872, when they re- 
moved to Benson, four miles west of Hyde 
Park, where they remained until the father's 
death, in November, 1892, the mother follow- 
ing him in February, 1893. 

Henry T. Rogers, their eldest son, assisted 
his father on the farm until his twenty-second 
year. He was then, on February 8, 1884, mar- 
ried with Miss Rebecca Williams, and engaged 
in farming and cattleraising at his home in Ben- 
son. Three years later, on March 24, 1887. 
his wife died, leaving a daughter Rae. Mr. 
Rogers then returned to> the parental home and 
remained there two years. On December 5, 
1888, he was again married to Miss Abigail B. 
Marble and then returned to his own home. 
On April 22, 1892, she died. Her only sur- 
viving child, Liddy M., now resides with her 
grandparents at Deweyville, Utah. 

Again a single man, Mr. Rogers determined 
to give himself the opportunity of school edu- 
cation, heretofore denied him, and moved to 
Logan and attended both the Brigham Young 
and the State Agricultural Colleges, complet- 
ing a course in the latter in 1894. On October 
2, 1895, Mr. Rogers married Miss Esther C. 
Parkinson, of Logan, Utah, formerly of Frank- 
lin, Idaho, and a daughter of Samuel Rose and 
Arabella (Chandler) Parkinson, and a sister to 
George C. Parkinson, president of the Oneida 
stake of the Mormon church. They have had 
five children, Alice Parkinson, Lucile Parkin- 
son, Clara Parkinson, Henry Parkinson and 
George Lenard Parkinson. All are living ex- 
cept Clara, who died May n, 1902, aged four 
years, one month and eighteen days. 

Mr. Rogers was employed by the mercantile 
house of W. C. Parkinson at Preston, Idaho, 
as salesman, remaining there five years, the last 
three years being the head salesman. In July, 
1901, he resigned the position as head sales- 



man and opened a meat market in partnership 
with Charles F. Hawkes. They have built up 
a progressive business, known as the Pioneer 
Meat Market. Mr. Rogers has a large farm 
three miles north of Preston, which he has 
owned for several years and on which he has 
placed much improvement. He has a fine resi- 
dence in the central part of the town, and is 
recognized as a leading business man and a 
representative citizen. 

In church affairs he has always taken a 
leading part and has made himself so serv- 
iceable that on October 2, 1898, he was ap- 
pointed the first counsellor to Bishop Larson, 
and he served in that capacity until the division 
of the ward on February 3, 1902. He was 
then created bishop of the First ward, being ap- 
pointed by the stake presidency and set apart 
by Apostle Rudger Clawson, and he has since 
served the ward with wisdom, zeal and discre- 
tion. He is one of the enterprising young men 
of this section of the state and is always fore- 
most in promoting the welfare of the town and 
county. 

JOSEPH B, ROPER. 

Joseph B. Roper, of Preston, Idaho, one of 
the enterprising and successful farmers and 
business men of his portion of the state, can 
properly be called a product of this Western 
country and of the Mormon church, as the 
whole of his life has been passed in close con- 
nection with and in the active service of both. 
He was born on August 1, 1858, at Lehi, Utah, 
the son of Joseph B. and Elizabeth (Molen) 
Roper, the former a native of England and the 
latter of the United States. The father came 
to this country with his mother in 1847, when 
he was but thirteen years of age, they having 
joined the church in their native land. They 
crossed the plains to Utah with the first compan- 
ies of the church people and settled in the Lehi 
country, where the father engaged in fanning 



3 82 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



until 1861. He never had the advantages of a 
school education, hut was self-educated, ac- 
quiring a much more practical education than 
many who attended school. 

He then moved into the Cache Valley, locat- 
ing at Hyde Park, where he renewed his farm- 
ing operations and remained until 1875. At 
that time he changed his base of operations to 
the vicinity of Gunnison in Sanpete county, 
where he has since lived and prospered, giving 
active attention to public and church affairs and 
winning and holding the respect and confidence 
of the whole community. He served eight 
years as postmaster of Gunnison, and rendered 
efficient service in the office. Being a talented 
musician, he has been called into service as a 
leader of the church choirs both at Hyde Park 
and Gunnison. 

His son, Joseph B. Roper, was but three 
years old when the family took up its residence 
at Hyde Park, and at that place he reached 
maturity and received his education. He 
worked on the farm until the family moved to 
Gunnison and accompanied them thither, re- 
maining one year. He then returned to Hyde 
Park, where he lived for three years. At the 
end of that time he entered the employ of the 
Utah & Northern Railroad, which was then 
building to Butte. He was connected with this 
enterprise until 1883, when he came to Preston, 
secured employment for a year on the irrigating 
canals and. in 1884, he bought the ranch he now 
owns and occupies one block from the center 
of the town. James and Joseph Johnson and 
Mr. Hawkes came to this section of the county 
about the same time and in partnership with 
Mr. Roper they formed a company, under the 
name of James Johnson & Co., for the purpose 
of carrying on extensive farming operations 
and other enterprises, Lorenzo Johnson later 
joining the firm. They bought residence prop- 
erty adjoining that of Mr. Roper, and on por- 
tions of it built their present fine homes. 



The company first located on school land 
two and one-half miles northwest of Preston, 
which they subsequently bought, and here they 
started farming on a scale of some magnitude. 
They also bought a threshing outfit and for a 
number of years threshed the grain for all the 
farmers in this neighborhood. Their machin- 
ery was up-to-date in even* particular, and they 
later purchased one of the most complete and 
latest improved steam threshers, which greatly 
multiplied their capacity and lessened their la- 
bor. In 1890 they inaugurated a sawmill busi- 
ness in Birch Creek Canyon, seventeen miles 
east of Preston, running the mills mostly in the 
winter months. This has proven a paying en- 
terprise and has also been of great advantage to 
the community in which it operates, and 
throughout a large extent of the surrounding 
country. The firm owns a considerable stock 
in both of the irrigating canals which are in use 
through this section, and it has about 1.260 
acres of valuable land, thirty acres of which 
are reserved as residence property at Preston. 
Much of the residue is under good irrigation 
and active cultivation, and some is cultivated by 
"dry farming" with good results. They are 
conducting the largest farming business in this 
part of Cache Valley. The gentlemen of this 
enterprising firm are all representative men. 
having a high place in the public regard and a 
commanding influence in the public life of the 
county. 

In politics Mr. Roper is a Democrat and his 
counsel is much valued by the leaders of his 
party. He is earnest in its service, aiding ma- 
terially in all its campaigns, but not desiring 
office for himself, the only one he has accepted 
being that of justice of the peace, which posi- 
tion he held for four years, from 1898 to 1902. 
He is also loyal and devoted to his church, and 
is always foremost in advancing its interests. 
On December 28, 1877, at Salt Lake. Utah, 
he married with Miss Tulia A. Lamb, a native 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



383 



of that state and daughter of Suel and Eliza- 
beth (Zimmerman) Lamb, respectively natives 
of Ohio and Pennsylvania. All the members of 
the firm to which he belongs married sisters, 
Mrs. Roper being the eldest. Ten children have 
blessed their union, seven of whom are living. 
Margaret, Suel, Orin, Simpson, Hattie, Lo- 
raine and Leroy. Joseph B., Marion and How- 
ard died in infancy. 

JUDGE HARVEY L. ROGERS. 

The ever-efficient police judge, Harvey L. 
Rogers, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is a represent- 
ative of an old Colonial family of New Eng- 
land, which traces back through years of 
residence in the United States to the famous 
Rogers family of England, one of the most 
conspicuous of whom was the celebrated John 
Rogers, the martyr, who was burned at the 
stake at Smithfield, England, on February 
4' I 555- Opposition to the forms and dog- 
mas of the Catholic church, devotion to prin- 
ciple, resistance to tyranny and determined 
steadfastness of purpose have always been 
salient characteristics of the family. The 
birthplace of Judge Rogers was in the metrop- 
olis of America, New York City, where he 
was born on September 20, 18 18, a son of 
James and Clarinda (Fuller) Rogers. 

James Rogers was a native of Washing- 
ton county, N. Y., where he passed his days, 
with the exception of two years' residence in 
Vermont. He was an old-fashioned Demo- 
crat and a veteran of the war of 181 2, a son 
of James Rogers, a native of Rhode Island, 
who was one of the pioneer settlers in the 
heavy forests of Washington county, N. Y. 
In his early youth he gave active and ap- 
preciated service in the Revolutionary war. 
The mother, of Judge Rogers, who was born 
in the Black River country of New York 
state, became the mother of twelve children, 



and after a life passed in useful activity died 
at the Washington county homestead in 

i833- 

Judge Rogers was the tenth of the chil- 
dren of his father's family and soon after the 
death of his mother he assumed the responsi- 
bility of life for himself, going first to Al- 
bany, and after a stay of ten days proceed- 
ing to Buffalo, N. Y., where he was occupied 
with various employments for about three 
years, thereafter maintaining his residence in 
Albany and Troy for about six years, thence 
removing to New York City, where he mingled 
in the activities of that great city for a period 
of six or seven years, sailing thence to New 
Orleans and after a residence of six years in 
New Orleans and Charleston, S. C, he re- 
turned to New York City, there remaining 
two years, then making his residence in 
Albany for four years, then taking the long 
voyage to California around Cape Horn to 
San Francisco, thence going to Tuolumne 
county, where he was engaged in mining for 
a period of eighteen months, with more than 
the ordinary success of that adventurous class 
of pioneers. Making his return to the East 
by the Panama route, he resided for various 
lengths of time in New York City, Troy, N. 
Y.j and Chicago, 111., from there going to 
Whiskey Island, Miss., which was his resi- 
dence at the commencement of the Civil war 
period. 

Being from the North, and possessing 
strong Union sympathies, the citizens gave 
him five hours to leave the, town, and on the 
first boat he hastened northward, returning 
to Albany, where he enlisted in Company F, 
Eighteenth New York Infantry, taking part 
in the disastrous first battle of Bull Run, 
where he was in the service in the capacity of 
color sergeant, receiving a dangerous wound 
and being, on account of this, discharged at 
Alexandria for* disability and being incapaci- 



3 8 4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tated for service. After a number of months, 
upon sufficient recovery, he again enlisted, 
this time in Company F, One Hundred and 
Fifty-second New York Infantry, and fol- 
lowed its brilliant career in the Army of the 
Potomac until the final surrender of General 
Lee at Appomattox, and it was his fortune to 
be again wounded at the battle of Spottsyl- 
vania on May 12, 1864. Receiving an honor- 
able discharge at the close of the war. lie re- 
mained in Albany and New York City until 
the panic times immediately subsequent to the 
historic Black Friday. 

On January 20, 1864, he started with his 
family westward, en route for Baker's Peak, 
Colo., now called Silverton, where he 
again became connected with mining opera- 
tions. In 1867 he went to Silver Cliff, Colo., 
and served as city marshal with distinguished 
ability for two years. Later in Sedgwick, 
Colo., he was proprietor of a feed-and-sales 
stable for two years, then passed some time in 
Denver and Boulder. Colo., from which latter 
place, on March 27, 1883, he started for the 
Coeur d'Alene country. The latter place 
not meeting his expectations, he came to 
Eagle Rock, the site of the present beautiful 
city of Idaho Falls, and in 1884 he located 
a ranch and at once became a prominent citi- 
zen of the place. 

A stalwart Democrat, he was elected the 
very year of his arrival to the office of justice 
of peace, to which he has been successively 
elected from that time to the present, filling 
the position with more than the usual ability, 
and demonstrating himself to be an official 
man of broad thought and wise judgment. 
In 1901, seventeen of the cases which he de- 
cided were appealed to the supreme court 
and every decision was sustained. The duties 
of his office absorb so much of his time that 
he has relinquished the care of his ranch, has 
built a fine residence of modern style and 



architecture in Idaho Falls and here main- 
tains his residence, being considered one of 
the useful, prominent and popular residents of 
the place, while, in a broader circle and a 
wider area, he has a large number of strong 
personal friends. Judge Rogers has the good 
opinion of all classes of the community, ami is 
universally regarded as a man of integrity, 
keenly alive to the best interests of the county 
and state, and, while strict in the administra- 
tion of justice, full of considerate and kindly 
feelings for his fellow men. 

The wife of Mr. Rogers, with whom he 
married in 1865, was a native of Brooklyn. 
N. Y.. a Miss Mary J. Davis, a daughter of 
John, and Ruth (Coggswell) Davis, natives 
of New York and Vermont. Mrs. Rogers 
died on March 27, 1896, mourned -by a large 
circle of friends by whom she was valued for. 
her many estimable qualities. Her family con- 
sists of the following children : Minnie, de- 
ceased ; Jane, deceased ; Harvey : Emma ; 
Bronson; William: Effa, deceased. -and Hat- 
tie, who is also deceased. - 

ADAM SAUER. 

Being distinctively a pioneer in the de- 
velopment of the sagebrush wilderness of the 
section of the country where his home is lo- 
cated, Adam Saner, who was born in Heidel- 
berg, Germany, in 1865, a son of John and 
Catharine (Nopp) Sauer. has so comported 
himself by his energy, activity and the result- 
ant success in his business enterprises, and 
from his breadth of thought, dispassionate 
judgment and deep religious principles, as 
to hold a prominent position in the church, 
while his capabilitv for properly filling official 
positions has been given recognition by his 
election and appointment to various political 
offices. He is at the present time the ef- 
ficient postmaster of Coltman postoffice. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



385 



which was established in 1896, he holding the 
position of postmaster from its establishment. 

John Saner, the father of the Coltman 
postmaster, was a weaver in his native land 
of Germany, maintaining his residence at 
Heidelberg until his death, at the age of 
thirty-two years. His widow remained in 
Germany until .1881, when the filial affection 
of her son Adam, who was the oldest of her 
five children, induced her to come to the 
United States and thereafter, until her death 
on September 8, 1893, at the age of fifty-one 
years, she was a venerated member of his 
household, and she now lies buried at Idaho 
Falls. 

Adam Saner accompanied a company of 
Mormon emigrants from Heidelberg to the 
United States when he was but eighteen years 
of age and, locating in Utah, remained there 
for a period of six years, when he located on 
his present property, which is pleasantly situ- 
ated seven miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 
where he took up a homestead of 160 acres 
on the sagebrush plains, which his intelligent 
efforts and industry have improved and de- 
veloped to its present fine condition, and 
where he is successfully engaged in general 
farming and stockraising. . He has been 
actively interested in irrigation and was one 
of the pioneers in the building of the Poverty 
Flat and Burgess Irrigation Canals and the 
Great Feeder Canal, which was built some 
years after the first. 

In all of these companies Mr. Sauer has 
held official relations from the first, holding 
the position of secretary in each of them for 
the last eight years. He is identified with the 
political life of the community as an active 
Democrat, holding the office of justice of the 
peace and notary public for a number of years. 
He is an elder of the Mormon church and 
also the Sunday school superintendent of 
South Grand ward. On April 20, 1896. Mr. 



Sauer became the husband of Miss Viola 
Hall, a native of Virginia, and a daughter of 
William Hall, now a resident of Arkansas, 
and his wife Ruth A. Hall, who now resides 
at Idaho Falls. Mr. and Mrs. Sauer have 
had four children : Bessie, Irvin, Hazel and 
Ruth, the last named deceased. 

C. G. ROSE. 

It is no easy task to adequately describe one 
who has led an eminently active, busy and use- 
ful life and attained a position of high relative 
distinction, trust and honor in his community, 
but biography finds its most perfect justifica- 
tion in the preserving and recording of such 
life histories as that of Charles G. Rose, now 
a leading- merchant of the county of Bannock, 
his home and scene of business activities being 
located in the thriving city of Soda Springs, 
Idaho. He was born in Trenton, N. J., Octo- 
ber 5, 1841, a son of Stephen B. and Sarah T. 
(Wikoff) Rose, also natives of New Jersey, the 
paternal ancestors tracing back through sev- 
eral generations to early Colonial stock of New 
England, and, further, to long years of occu- 
pancy on English soil, while the mother's people 
were of distinguished German ancestry. 

The father, a zealous Mormon, identified 
himself with the Mormon colony of Utah in 
1851, his family following him thither in 1853, 
and he was there in the employ of the Z. C. M. 
I. and William Jennings, being also a mer- 
chant, a sagacious and discriminating sub-In- 
dian ag _ ent at the time of his first residence in 
Utah, winning high praise for his administra- 
tive powers in that connection, becoming in la- 
ter years a popular merchant at Pleasant Grove. 
The mother died at Soda Springs, Idaho, in 
187 1, while on a visit to that place to recuper- 
ate her health, the father dying at the family 
home in Utah, on February 15, 1897, at the 
patriarchal age of eighty-two years, the par- 



3 86 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ent of five children, of whom Charles G. was 
the eldest. 

Identified with the West from his early 
youth and receiving his education in the schools 
of Utah, in 1873 Mr. Rose commenced his long 
identification with mercantile affairs by enter- 
ing a branch of the Z. C. M. I., located at Soda 
Springs, in a clerical capacity, remaining here 
to the great satisfaction of his employers for 
seven years, thereafter engaging in merchan- 
dising for himself and establishing the first 
store of the place, outside of the mercantile 
house by which he had been employed, on the 
site where the old Cariboo Hotel now stands. 
Being prospered in his undertakings, he erected 
a brick store especially intended to supply the 
necessities and conveniences of an extensive 
mercantile trade, and here he is now engaged 
in a prosperous business, carrying a full line of 
dry goods, furnishing goods, shelf hardware, 
boots and shoes, and other desired articles of 
merchandise, and receiving an extensive and 
appreciative patronage. In connection with 
merchandising he conducts agricultural opera- 
tions on his finely located ranch, which is sit- 
uated five miles southeast of Soda Springs, 
where he has an estate of 480 acres, mostly 
adapted to the raising of hay. 

Standing high in the esteem of the general 
public for his many sterling qualities of head 
and heart, Mr. Rose holds a prominent position 
in the Church of Latter Day Saints, having been 
an efficient superintendent of the Sunday school 
at Soda Springs for the long period of twenty 
years, and also filling the position of first coun- 
sellor to the bishop. 

In Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 22, 
1868, the rites of holy matrimony were cele- 
brated that united Mr. Rose with Miss Mar- 
garet E. Nowlin, a native of Utah and a daugh- 
ter of Byran W. and Man' (Cummings) Now- 
lin, the father being a native of Tennessee and 
the mother of Massachusetts, thev being earlv 

■ f] 



pioneers of Utah and having the distinction of 
crossing the plains in one of the first Mormon 
companies in 1847. The names in order of 
birth of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Rose are 
as follows: Nellie W., who died at the age of 
three years, three months and three days ; 
Charles E., who married Martha E. Gibbs. 
May, now wife of Daniel J. Lau ; Walter N. : 
Anna B., now wife of Hyrum M. Lau; Nerva 
Leal, all of the living ones being residents of 
Soda Springs. 

In political relations Mr. Rose is connected 
with the Democratic party, and, in forwarding 
the interests of that organization, he has wield- 
ed no unimportant part in this vicinity, but he 
has never been a seeker for its honors or emolu- 
ments. We have thus outlined in brief the 
story of one of the most active and useful lives 
of Bannock county ; financially, socially and re- 
ligiously the career of Mr. Rose shows a dis- 
tinct and unqualified success. His high per- 
sonal character has won the esteem of all, and 
the consensus of public opinion is that he is 
a man of the strictest integrity, broad-minded 
and progressive, who has won his way to a 
high standing in the hearts of the people and 
is looked upon by them as a venerated cili- 
zen and pioneer. 

WILLIAM H. ANDERSON. M. D. 

One of the representative medical men of 
Bear Lake county. Idaho, who holds high 
rank in his profession and whose ability and 
courtesy have won for him the confidence and 
the supporting patronage of a large class of 
citizens, and whose home, office, well- 
furnished laboratory and drug store are cen- 
trally located in the brisk young city of So<la 
Springs, is William H. Anderson, M. D.. who 
was born at Florence, Pa., on February 14, 
1835, a son of Robert S. and Dorcas A. S. 
(Hopkins) Anderson, natives respectively of 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



389 



Pennsylvania and Ohio. The father long con- 
ducted merchandising, being located suc- 
cessively in Florence and Allegheny City, 
Pa., and Monroe and Pella, Iowa, by his 
regular habits of life and prudent attention 
to his health attaining the venerable age of 
eig"hty-five years and thirty days. ■ 

The paternal grandparents of Doctor 
Anderson were Major Robert and Betsy 
(Ag"nes) Anderson, natives of eastern Penn- 
sylvania, and early pioneers of Washington 
county, that state. Major Anderson, who was 
born during the troubles attending the com- 
mencement of the American Revolution, on 
March 26, 1776, was ever one of the leaders of 
public sentiment in his section of the state 
and was. the major of the Pennsylvania regi- 
ment that was sent to Fort Dearborn (Chi- 
cago) in -1812 to defend the citizens from a 
possible British invasion by water. His par- 
ents were Robert and Margaret Anderson, 
the father's birth occurring in Maryland, on 
March 16, 1734, just 100 years and one month 
previous to the birth of the subject of this 
sketch, and his death occurred on December 7, 
1778. 

Not only on the paternal but on the ma- 
ternal side were the American ancestors of 
the Doctor of note and consequence. His 
mother was a daughter of William and Mary 
(Pumphery) Hopkins, her nativity occurring 
in that portion of Virginia that was later se- 
gregated to form the state of West Virginia, 
while her father was born in Fayette county, 
Pa., a son of James Hopkins, who, born in 
Maryland, was a member of the prominent 
family of that name that exercised so much 
political and other power in that state and 
whose name is perpetuated by the Johns Hop- 
kins University. Mary Pumphery was a 
daughter of Caleb Pumphery, one of the 
earliest settlers of West Virginia and a large 
landholder, being closely related to John Han- 



cock and Stephen Hopkins, both signers of 
the Declaration of Independence. 

Thus it will be seen that Doctor Anderson 
unites in his veins the best blood of the best 
families of the old Colonial days. Receiving 
his preliminary literary training and education 
in the schools of Pennsylvania and Ohio, 
Doctor A.nderson matriculated at the Eclectic 
College of Medicine and Surgery at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, and, after a full course therein, was 
graduated with the class of 1855, immediately 
thereafter engaging in medical practice at 
Newark, Iowa. In 1859 he located in Utah 
and from the first he has obtained a large and 
intelligent practice in each location where his 
professional services have been offered to the 
people, practicing in turn in Cache and Malad 
counties, Utah, and in Oneida county, Idaho. 

In 1897 he came to Soda Springs, bought 
the mercantile stock and interests of the only 
merchant, started the first drug store of the 
town and established himself as a physician 
and surgeon. Here he has prosperously con- 
tinued to reside, witnessing and participating 
in the rapid growth and prosperity of the 
lively young city, and to him has come a medi- 
cal practice of unmistakably representative 
character. The Doctor keeps abreast of the 
extremely rapid progress in the sciences of 
medicine and surgery, is a close and earnest 
student, is in close touch with the marvelous 
scientific advances of the age, and yet finds 
time to become an interested factor in all 
matters of public improvement or beneficent 
activity, having and retaining a strong hold 
upon the hearts of the people. 

For over a quarter of a century the Doc- 
tor held the commission of justice of the 
peace in Utah, that of notary, public for two 
terms, while in the Nauvoo Legion of Cache 
county he held the office of regimental sur- 
geon, carrying with it the title of major, and 
for thirty years he was the popular post- 



39° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



master of Portage, Box Elder county. Utah. 
In the economy of the Mormon church he 
has ably sustained the position of counsellor 
to the bishop and has noticeably advanced the 
interests of education by his efficient services 
as a school trustee. 

On September 8, 1861, Doctor Anderson 
was united in marriage at Wellsville, Utah, 
with Miss May Allen, a native of Derbyshire, 
England, a daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth 
(Siddall) Allen. Their children are William 
A., born in Wellsville. Utah, on September 26, 
1862: Dorcas E., born February 16, 1865, 
died August 2, 1876; Mary E., born in Wells- 
ville, March 19, 1867, married first Charles A. 
Heaston, who died, leaving one child, and sec- 
ond marrying with John Kelly, of Soda 
Springs, Idaho. The family of our worthy 
Doctor occupies a distinctively high place in 
social circles and they have a large circle of 
devoted friends, to whom the attractive home 
of the Doctor is a center of genial hospitality. 

CHARLES SAUREY. 

It was over half a century ago that Daniel 
and Elizabeth (Fankhausel) Saurey. descend- 
ants of old and representative families of Swit- 
zerland, where they were educated and mar- 
ried, left their native land in their zeal and earn- 
estness for the Mormon church, which they had 
joined, crossed the broad waters of the Atlan- 
tic Ocean, and, after reaching America, without 
stop or stay proceeded to Utah, journeying over 
the plains with both ox and the handcart trains, 
in the slow movements of which they joined 
until without serious hindrance they arrived in 
the land of Zion, where they located at Little 
Cottonwood, now Murray, where the father 
pursued the dual vocations of farming and car- 
pentry, and here on February 13, 1862, was 
born their son. Charles Saurey, the immediate 
subject of this sketch. The family home was 



transferred in 1S04 to Logan, where the intelli- 
gent and industrious parents well fulfilled the 
duties of life until 1899, when the rapidly ap- 
proaching infirmities of old age caused their 
removal to the Snake River Valley of Idaho, 
that they might pass the evening twilight of 
their lives in the near presence of their son, and 
here the venerated mother died on April 14, 
1900, her remains being deposited in the Rex- 
burg cemetery to await the resurrection, while 
the father is now an inmate of the family of his 
son Charles. 

Before he was nineteen years old. Charles 
Saurev was the sole arbiter of his life's opera- 
tions, and he signalized his freedom by engag- 
ing in the construction work of the Utah 
Northern Railroad for three consecutive years, 
doing faithful and appreciated service, then, in 
June. 1883, he came to his present location near 
the prosperous town of Rexburg. then a mere 
hamlet in a vast, unpeopled extent of sage- 
brush wilderness, located on a homestead of 
160 acres, and at once began the work of devel- 
oping and improving the land, thus commenc- 
ing the farming and stockraising departments 
of agriculture which he has since so prosper- 
ously conducted. His efforts were immediately 
given for the supplying of his land with water. 
and in the accomplishment of this purpose he 
assisted in building all of the irrigating canals 
and ditches that are in close proximity to Rex- 
burg, and for the last fourteen years he has 
been the efficient trustee and treasurer of the 
Consolidated Farmers' Canal Co. 

He has ever been an active worker in the 
Republican political party, supporting its poli- 
cies and candidates most loyally, but never ac- 
cepting or desiring office for himself, deeming 
that his private interests fully demanded all 
of the time which he could devote to them, and 
the prosperity that has attended his endeavors 
is marked, for he has added 80 acres to his orig- 
inal homestead, while the fertile condition of 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



39i 



his estate is manifested by the bounteous crops 
of ha}', grain, etc., he yearly produces. As a 
citizen, Mr. Saurey ranks as a man of independ- 
ent thought, actuated and dominated by accu- 
rate principles, supporting and liberally sustain- 
ing all efforts for the amelioration or the bet- 
terment of the community, and he has many 
friends in social circles, and in the Church of 
Latter Day Saints his services as an elder and 
a home missionary have been faithfully ren- 
dered. 

He was joined in wedlock on September 
17, 1886, with Miss Laura Barber, a daughter 
of John and Charlotte (Kirby) Barber, who 
came to Utah from England in 1862, and, after 
' the discomforting deprivations and danger of 
the long journey over the plains with ox carts 
on the emigrants' trail were past, quietly set- 
tling down as farmers at Hyde Park, Utah, 
where they purchased a plot of twenty acres of 
land, but later removing to Logan, where the 
father died when he was sixty-one years old, 
on October 14, 1889; the mother, at seventy- 
two years of age, at this writing is residing at 
Rexburg, where has been her home for eigh- 
teen years. To Mr. and Mrs. Saurey have been 
born seven children, Rosella, Heber, Levi, Wil- 
liam, Fred, Edith and Louella. 

THOMAS A. SAYER. 

At present engaged in farming operations 
on his productive farm at Lewisville, Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, of which neighborhood 
he has been a popular and a useful citizen 
since 1885, Thomas A. Sayer is one of the 
truly progressive men of his county and well 
merits recognition in this volume. He was 
born on April 6, 1857, in Northamptonshire, 
England, a descendant of families long resi- 
dent in that beautiful locality of Great Britain, 
his parents being Thomas and Elizabeth 
(Jolly) Sayer. When he was five years old 



he accompanied his parents in their emigra- 
tion from England, coming across the At- 
lantic and the immense breadth of the Ameri- 
can continent to Utah, traveling for weeks on 
the wearisome and dangerous journey across 
the plains, the father after reaching Utah 
establishing the family home in the Weber 
River Valley, during all the years of his resi- 
dence there diligently pursuing his trade of 
shoemaker, and, in 1886, coming to Rigby in 
the Snake River Valley, where he now re- 
sides. 

Thomas A. Sayer attained manhood with 
the opportunities for learning that came in 
the intervals of the labors connected with the 
paternal home, and, at the age of thirty-two 
years, he was employed in railroad construc- 
tion, continuing this for the period of five 
years, when for two years he was engaged in 
agricultural operations at Hooper, Utah, 
thence transferring the field of his labors in 
the same industry to the Cache Valley, where 
he resided until 1885, then came to the infant 
colony of Lewisville and located on his pres- 
ent farm, in the improvement of which he 
has spent much time and earnest endeavor, 
the sagebrush on the land at that time, 
"standing as high as a horse," while to clear 
the ground Mr. Sayer "grub-hoed" out forty 
acres of the original growth, being ac- 
customed to labor all day with the hoe and 
during the night to burn the brush. Water 
being the great desideratum to bring fruit- 
fulness to the soil, Mr. Sayer gave great at- 
tention to irrigation projects and plans, and 
was one of the promoters and builders of the 
Parks & Lewisville Canal, also being con- 
nected in the construction of the Great 
Feeder Canal, and a stockholder of the com- 
pany from the first and now its president. 

Interested in all other matters tending to 
benefit the community or add to its welfare, 
and having a deep interest in all public mat- 



392 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ters of a general as well as a local nature. Air. 
Saver has ever been in accord with the prin- 
ciples of the Democratic party, aiding by his 
strong personality in its endeavors and cam- 
paigns, although never aspiring to official 
place for himself, preferring to do his duty as 
a loyal citizen in the ranks of his party. In 
the various movements and beneficient meas- 
ures of the Mormon church he has been an 
active and an efficient worker, having for- 
merly held the office of deacon and now hold- 
ing that of elder. 

On September 23. 1879. Air. Saver and 
Miss Mary E.' Jones were united in mar- 
riage, she being a native of Utah, born on 
December 23, i860, a daughter of Thomas 
and Jane Nelson, natives of England, who 
made their home in Utah among the early 
pioneers, crossing the plains with ox teams 
and patiently enduring the trials, disappoint- 
ments and privations incident to pioneer life, 
doing their life's work well, the father dying 
at Hooper, Utah, in 1887, at the age of 
seventy-four years, the mother still surviving, 
with her home at Hooper, and numbering her 
years as seventy-six. The children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Saver are Elizabeth. Alveretta. 
Mary F... deceased, Thomas, 'William M.. 
John H.. Ethel, Myrtle, Joseph W., deceased. 
Goldie M. and Lola C. 

WILLIAM OWEX SAYER. 

Prominently identified as a pioneer in the 
great work of developing the sagebrush 
plains of the Upper Snake River Vallev, and, 
by his industry, thrift and unceasing labors, 
bringing into existence a highly productive, 
fertile and attractive ranch, where, when he 
commenced his discriminating operations, no 
life but the wild rabbits and coyotes could 
find material for existence. William Owen 
Saver has done well his part in the combined 



efforts which have caused this section of the 
state to forge so rapidly to the front. He 
was born on January 8, 1852, in England, a 
son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Jolly) Saver. 
and in 1864 he accompanied his parents from 
their native land on the long-outstretching 
distance that separated them from their des- 
tination in the land of Utah. 

The weary, monotonous journey with ox 
teams across the vast Western plains will ever 
stand fresh in the memory of Mr. Saver, 
being strongly outlined by the hardships, 
privations and perilous experiences of the 
trip, but these were safely passed and Salt 
Lake City reached in safety. The father estab- 
lished the family home at Riverdale. Weber 
county, Utah, where he pursued his trade as 
a shoemaker until 1876. hence removing to 
the Cache Valley, and, after nine years' resi- 
dence there, in 1885, he became a resident of 
Rigby, Idaho, where he took up a homestead 
and where he yet resides. 

William O. Saver began to work as his 
own master at the age of fifteen years, and, 
after passing two years in labor on a farm, 
he became a brakeman on the Union Pacific 
Railroad, continuing to be thus employed 
for four years, when he was for three more 
years connected with farming operations at 
Hooper, L T tah, thence transferring his activi- 
ties to the Cache Valley, where he continued 
in agricultural enterprises for nine years, 
then, in 1885, becoming a permanent resident 
of what is now Fremont county. Idaho, and 
securing a government homestead of 160 
acres four miles northwest of Rigby. where 
he now resides, being prosperously engaged 
as a farmer and in stockraising on the well- 
watered and fertile estate, which his industry 
and good management have brought out of 
the sagebrush desert land he had first to 
call his home. 

His success has come as the direct result 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



393 



of his good judgment, his practical ability and 
his diligent attention to the work to be per- 
formed. He has aided in the construction of all 
the irrigation canals of the vicinity of his home 
and is a stockholder in the Great Feeder Canal 
Co., also in the pioneer Parks & Lewisville Co., 
in which he has often served as a director, 
holding that office at its incorporation. An 
enthusiastic Democrat, he was appointed the 
first postmaster of Sayer postofhce, upon its 
establishment in 1902, and he is now in the 
incumbency of the office. In the Church 
of Latter Day Saints, in which he holds mem- 
bership, he is at this writing a member of 
the elder's quorum. 

On May 4, 1873, Mr. Sayer and Miss 
Marj' L. Bybee were united in marriage, her 
birth transpiring at East Weber, Utah, on 
October 17, 1859, being a daughter of John 
M. and Polly (Smith) Bybee, who early came 
from their native place in the Atlantic states 
to Nauvoo, 111., as adherents of the faith pro- 
mulgated by Joseph Smith, the father there 
conducting farming for some years previous 
to their removal to Utah in 1849, tne mother 
going hither across the plains with an ox- 
team train, while the father, who was a mem- 
ber of the Mormon battalion, reached the 
same destination after g'oing to Mexico and 
California. Their Utah home was established 
at Weber River and there the parents yet 
reside, venerable and venerated members of 
a community who honor them as old-timers 
and for their consistent religious lives. 

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Sayer are, 
Mary E. ; Clara Louise died on April 9, 1895, 
aged nineteen years ; William Owen died on 
February 25, 1878, aged two days; Polly 
Ann ; Laura Matilda ; Rhoda Elizabeth ; Nora 
Alice ; Nettie Laverne ; John Earl ; Eva 
Estella ; Aha Pearl ; Jennie Manila The living- 
children are all highly esteemed in their re- 
spective communities. 



HYRUM SCOTT. 

Among the prosperous, because industrious, 
thoughtful and capable, agriculturists of La 
Belle district of Fremont county, Idaho, must 
be reckoned Hyrum Scott, whose attractive 
homestead of 160 acres, of which one-half is 
cleared and in cultivation, indicates by the ap- 
pearance, thrift and quality and yield of crops, 
that it is under the direct superintendence of a 
practical agriculturist, who systematically ar- 
ranges his business operations and meets with 
correspondingly successful and profitable re- 
sults. 

Hyrum Scott was born in the state of Ne- 
braska on July 15, 1846, a son of the marriage 
of John and Mary (Pugh) Scott, natives respec- 
tively of England and Ireland, both of them 
emigrating in their early life and meeting and 
marrying in New York City. In 1834 they 
were among the few daring families to pene- 
trate the West, taking up their abode as pio- 
neer farmers in Nebraska until 1848, when 
they joined the Mormon people who were 
crossing the plains to Utah, and, on arriving at 
Salt Lake City, they made there their perma- 
nent home, the father devoting himself to car- 
pentry and to farming until his death in 1879, 
at sixty-six years of age, the mother still being 
a resident of Salt Lake City, and now eighty- 
three years old. 

Mr. Scott commenced business for himself 
when twenty-two years of age as a herder of 
stock, later pursuing farming in Utah until 
1884, when he came to La Belle and located on 
a homestead of eligibly located and productive 
land, which his earnest labors and skillful in- 
dustry have greatly transformed, and where 
he is now profitably engaged in the raising of 
the crops and grains suitable to the soil and cli- 
mate. He was active in the building of the La 
Belle Irrigating Canal, holding the office of 
director and president. A Democrat in political 



394 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



adherency, he gives his services freely in the 
interest of the party, but does not seek notori- 
ety nor official places or positions, but in the 
Giurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
where duty calls him to serve, he has most ac- 
ceptably filled the office of elder and ward 
teacher. 

In Salt Lake City, on March 28, 1877, Mr. 
Scott and Miss Amelia B. Morgan were united 
in marriage. She was born on April 20, 1855, 
as a daughter of John and Ann (Gillett) Mor- 
gan, natives of England, who were numbered 
among the early emigrants into the Salt Lake 
country in the days when trials and hardships 
were daily occurrences, and, locating their per- 
manent home at Mill Creek, they engaged in 
farming and there they are now living. The 
following named children constitute the family 
of Mr. and Mrs. Scott: Hyrum E., born Feb- 
ruary 17, 1879; John Raymond, born Septem- 
ber 7, 1880. died on December 14, 1900; Wil- 
lard F.. born April 13, 1882; Lillian M., torn 
March 21, 1885, married on January 1. 1903, 
with William L. Johnson, of La Belle, Idaho ; 
Nettie M., born April 19. 1887, died at birth; 
Mary A., born February 5, 1888, died at birth ; 
Samuel R., born September 7, 1889; Lawrence 
L., born August 1, 1892; Florence I., born 
January 23. 1894; Leland F.., Ijorn June 23, 
1898, died January 29, 1899. 

MISS MAY L. SCOTT. 

It has always been understood that the 
worker in wood or stone or marble must be pre- 
pared, for his task by the special practice and 
discipline of years, and it is now realized that 
the person who labors upon the plastic minds 
and souls of children should have a fitting prep- 
aration and some knowledge of the divine ele- 
ment upon which the labor must be expended. 
The soul is more complex than the universe. 
From its depths spring all acts, all history. 



Immortal joy or immortal sorrow is its destiny. 
and, more sensitive than the musical instru- 
ment, it yields harmony or discord at the 
slightest touch. Woe to the man or woman 
who tampers with it by ignorantly or carelesslv 
assuming the divine task of shaping it for time 
and eternity. An artist at work on a block of 
marble said there was an angel in it and he was 
going to bring it out. So. in the soul of every 
child, is both an angel and a devil, and. if the 
teacher and careful culture do not bring forth 
the angel the devil will come forth unbidden. 

The progressive state of Idaho has ever 
shown itself fully awake to the difficulties sur- 
rounding the problem of education, and far 
more than in many other states has its momen- 
tous interests been wisely placed in the hands 
of cultured and capable women, whose sympa- 
thetic natures throb earnestly in response to the 
deep demands of the pupils and in harmony 
with the potent possibilities of the children 
flocking to its numerous schools. It is most 
fitting that in the very important department 
of public instruction of the state the eternally 
feminine should be given preference and these 
reflections bring us to the consideration of the 
excellent and fully capable lady who is now in 
the incumbency of the highest educational office 
of the state. Miss May L. Scott, the state su- 
perintendent of public instruction. 

It is most meet and truly appropriate 
that a suitable memoir and review of so useful 
and popular a member of the state's official 
family should be given in a memorial volume 
of the character of this work, not only as a per- 
sonal tribute to her acknowledged worth and 
capacity, but also to properly set forth in the 
dawning decade of the Twentieth Century, for 
the many generations of the hereafter, the earn- 
est efforts the commonwealth of Idaho is mak- 
ing for the benefit and the advancement of its 
children. 

In noting the salient points in the successful 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



39: 



career of this cultured, accomplished and highly 
efficient official, who has, by the pronounced ap- 
proval, acceptance and choice of the voters of 
the state, been placed in her present exalted po- 
sition, and who has, by her devoted, thoughtful 
and comprehensive grasp of her high office and 
its requirements, already added materially to 
the educational standing of this most liberal of 
all states in matters referring to the upbuilding 
of its schools, it is essential, as we said, in not- 
ing the salient points of her distinguished ca- 
reer, to give a brief record of her life and activ- 
ities, and to this pleasing duty we now devote 
ourselves. 

A' true lady in all that the term implies in 
its highest significance. Miss Scott was born at 
Iola, Kans., on October 10, 1868, a daughter of 
Daniel H. and Hannah M. (Anderson) Scott, 
and in her veins harmoniously flows the 
united blood of both New England and South- 
ern ancestors, for her father was a native of 
Tennessee and her mother of Illinois, the par- 
ents removing to Iola in 1865. Intelligent and 
progressive, their daughter was supported in 
her decision to obtain a "generous education, and 
in the excellent schools of her native city she 
early attained proficiency in her studies, being 
graduated from the high school in 1889, there- 
after putting her attainments to practical use 
as a successful teacher for three years in her 
native state, then supplementing her education 
hv judicious study in the Normal School of 
Emporia, where she took a high rank in meth- 
ods and the science of pedagogy. Succeeding 
this educational period Miss Scott was a teacher 
in the United States government schools of 
the Osage and Kaw Indian agencies, being the 
popular principal for one year at the latter 
place. 

The schools of Allen county, Kans., then 
received her services until 1893, when she came 
to Blackfoot, Idaho, and was an instructor at 
the Fort Hall Indian school for a few months, 



then was employed by district No. 20, across 
the river from Blackfoot, for two years, when 
she returned to Iola, Kans., and was there oc- 
cupied with photography for two more years. 
But the ruling passion of teaching was too 
strongly manifested in her for any other pro- 
fession to long retain her services, and she was 
soon thereafter teaching in one of the grades 
of the Blackfoot schools, following this by val- 
uable work as the associate principal of the 
Blackfoot high school. 

By this time Miss Scott had acquired a large 
and valuable acquaintance in the educational 
circles of the state, and was known and marked 
for her efficient labors, not only in the school 
room, but in institute work and kindred fields 
of labor, her reputation and popularity becom- 
ing so well established that, in 1900, she was 
made the nominee of the Republican party of 
Bingham county for county superintendent. 
After a spirited campaign she was elected by 
225 majority, and duly assumed the duties of 
that office, in which she so manifested her pe- 
culiar adaptation for the supervision of educa- 
tional interests, that the Republican state con- 
vention of 1902 nominated her for the respon- 
sible position of state superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction. 

The campaign was a heated one. The op- 
position candidate then held the office, and was 
universally considered as a good official, his 
nomination by the Democrats coming in the 
nature of a just appreciation of his well-dis- 
, charged duties. But the popular endorsement 
of the advanced methods and practice of teach- 
ing exemplified by Miss Scott carried her on to 
a sweeping victory, Bingham county, her home, 
rolling up 625 majority for her, and, on Jan- 
uary 1, 1903, she was duly installed in office. 

The labors of Miss Scott in her highly re- 
sponsible office have been earnest, faithful and 
effective. One of the especially important sub- 
jects that has occupied her attention is that of 



396 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK,. BEAR LAKE, 



the proper ventilation and sanitation of the 
public-school edifices and grounds of the state. 
In this matter she is an acknowledged author- 
ity. The improvement in these directions is al- 
ready marked and the subject is attracting a 
much-increased public attention through her 
timely efforts. Her aim has been to secure 
greater efficiency in the instruction of children 
of the state, and she is now laboring with that 
end in view, to consolidate the districts, and se- 
cure transportation facilities for the children to 
and from their homes, so that teachers of a 
higher grade may be employed and better re- 
sults obtained. Under her administration the 
school trustees' meetings have been a permanent 
organization with regular stated meetings. The 
advantage of this action is apparent to even a 
tvro in educational work and great benefit and 
lasting advantage will accrue to the entire 
school system of the state from this wise and 
far-reaching legislation. In 1904 the sum of 
$150 is offered in prizes for the improvement 
and embellishment of the various school 
grounds, of which amount $50 is contributed by 
Miss Scott and $100 by H. D. Watson, of 
Kearney, Neb. 

Bv virtue of her office as state superintend- 
ent of public instruction Miss Scott is a mem- 
ber of the state board of education and of the 
state board of trustees of the State Industrial 
Reform School, and she was the chairman of 
the committee on plans and building for the 
construction of the school edifice now in con- 
struction at St. Anthony. She is also a mem- 
ber of the state land board, having in charge 
all of the lands belonging to the state, a mem- 
ber of the boards of trustees of the two state 
normal schools and of the State Academy at 
Pocatello. while at the 1903-4 session of the 
Legislature the state superintendent was 
made the permanent secretary of the Idaho 
Free Traveling Library, so it can readily be 
seen that she is a very busy woman, and, to add 
to her labors, the work of preparing the school 



exhibit of the state at the St. Louis Exposition 
was turned over to the department of public 
instruction and Miss Scott attended to this duty 
in her usual admirable and systematic manner. 
In the practical field of active experience 
in teaching Miss Scott has passed fifteen most 
useful years. By close and diligent study she 
has ever kept abreast of and in touch with the 
latest developments in the pedagogic world and 
educational matters, while her well-poised and 
independent nature gives her a thorough self- 
possession and a sense of conscious mastery in 
all situations, making her an admirable presid- 
ing officer. Fully appreciative of the high dig- 
nity of the teacher's calling, she has often and 
fully demonstrated her ability to successfully 
cope in discussion with the ablest professional 
minds of the state. Her nature is amiable, gen- 
ial, and remarkably attractive, courtesy being 
an underlying trait of her personal character 
and charity an underlying principle of her daily 
life and conduct. 

Without an}- weak yearning for popularity, 
which, however, has come to her in no unstinted 
measure. Miss Scott is 'attending with steady 
application to the very important duties of her 
high station to the pronounced and manifest 
benefit of the teachers and the schools of the 
state, inflexibly performing what seems to her 
the proper thing to do. ever measuring and 
maintaining her course and life by the highest 
mental, professional and moral standards. No 
one in the state is filling so responsible a posi- 
tion with greater ability or practical success. 
This is in no small measure owing to the earn- 
est belief she holds, and is endeavoring every- 
where to inculcate, that our common schools 
should teach even- child obedience to authority, 
habits of systematic -industry, the principles of 
Christian morality, a patriotism fed by all the 
inspiration of our history, a knowledge of the 
fundamental propositions of our national and 
state governments and an appreciation of the 
sacred responsibilities of citizenship. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



397 



ANTOIN SCHNEITER. 

Oftentimes the experiences of the early 
pioneer, who has bravely entered into the pos- 
session of new lands far beyond the out- 
posts of civilization, when related by an ac- 
curate, honest and painstaking historian, 
seem more like a dream of fiction than a true 
picture of real life, and in recording" the career 
of Antoin Schneiter, now a successful and 
comfortable farmer of the Lewisville district 
of Fremont county, Idaho, we place before 
the readers of this work the actual struggles 
of an industrious family, who, without finan- 
cial reinforcement, were endeavoring to es- 
tablish and secure, and did establish and se- 
cure, a home not only for their old age, but 
for their children to enjoy. Another object 
gained in the portrayal of their efforts is the 
display of the natural possibilities of this 
portion of Idaho, where, even under the ham- 
pering and almost fettering conditions of ex- 
istence which surrounded the early settler, 
only a few years of deprivation and . honest 
toil were required to make a home of fruit- 
ful prosperity and resultant happiness. 

Antoin Schneiter was born in Prus- 
sia, on January 4, 1843, a son °f Karl and 
Mary (Meyer) Schneiter, and when Antoin 
was but four years old he accompanied his 
mother to Salt Lake City, where she resided 
until her death in 1898 at the age of seventy- 
five years. In 1874 Mr. Schneiter of this re- 
view came to Bingham Canyon, Utah, where 
for four years he was engaged in mining, 
thereafter being employed in various occu- 
pations until he came to Rigby in 1884, an d 
there took up 160 acres of land under the 
homestead act. When he arrived at Rigby his 
entire capital was but $2.25 and his furniture 
was at Idaho Falls with the freight unpaid. 
A Baptist preacher named Wilson loaned him 
five dollars, which secured the goods, and he 

28— 



soon found employment in threshing- and 
within a month he repaid the loan. He then 
went to> the timber and got a load of wood 
and by hauling this and other loads to Idaho 
Falls, and doing other work which came to 
hand, among it being the cutting of ice on 
Market Lake when the weather was so cold 
that it was almost impossible to keep warm, 
the thermometer indicating thirty-five de- 
grees below zero and rabbits freezing stiff. 

In 1885 he managed to get in a small crop 
of wheat adjacent to his small garden. A hail 
storm pounded the plants in the garden to 
pieces, but did not touch the wheat, while the 
next year the hail killed his entire crop of 
wheat. The first two years the grain had to 
be mown with scythes, and the seed grain 
was bought from the proceeds of a sale of 
chickens. Mrs. Schneiter assisted in the 
work of clearing and farming the land, al- 
though the mosquitoes swarmed like clouds. 
Mr. Schneiter worked at all kinds of work, 
getting $1.25 a day, but was compelled to 
take his pay in timber and calves. Returning 
to Salt Lake while he was at work here, Mrs. 
Schneiter there worked for wages and also 
dried and sold fruit, the money from both 
sources going to pay for the lumber for their 
house. Mr. Schneiter also did shoemaking 
for the few neighbors, and he says when they 
commenced housekeeping in their new home 
their whole outfit was not worth $75. 

Things have greatly changed. Now a 
highly improved and productive farm of 160 
acres furnishes bounteous crops, and every- 
thing indicates thrift and prosperity. Suit- 
able buildings and well-irrigated fields as- 
sure comfort to the well-fed stock owned 
by the genial proprietor. He is a stockholder 
in the Parks & Lewisville and the Burgess 
Irrigating Canals, and aided in their construc- 
tion. Joining the Mormon church in 1875, 
in 1883 he was ordained an elder, an office 



398 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



he still holds. On December 3, 1880. he 
was united in marriage with Miss Joanna 
Gudde, born in Prussia on February 19, 1857. 
as a daughter of Karl and Henri (DeKrouse) 
Gudde, who came to Lewisville in 1883 and 
are now living there, the father being eighty- 
one years old, and the mother eighty. The 
family of Mr. and Mrs. Schneiter comprises 
the following children: Kail M., born No- 
vember 22, 1881 ; Ada G., born August 1, 
1883 ; Otto F.. born January 21, 1885 ; Antoin 
A., born December 23. 1886; Elizabeth L., 
burn October 25, 1888; William F., born Oc- 
tober 9, 1889; Mary H., born October 8, 
1890; Johanna H., born November 13, 1892; 
Emma B., born February 8, 1894; Albert, 
born January 8, died January 27, 1898; 
Henry, born June 21, 1890, died at the age 
of seven months. 

JOHN R. SEEDALL. 

Among the numerous progressive and 
energetic men who have discerned and seized 
upon the wonderful opportunities presented in 
this newly developed section of the state of 
Idaho, John R. Seedall. the subject of this 
review, is surely entitled to more than a mere 
mention in any volume that has for its object 
the portrayal of facts connected with the ac- 
tive business operations of this section of the 
state, and particularly of Bingham county. 
He was born on January 5, 1853, at Lawmoor, 
in Lancashire, England, as a son of William 
and Ann Ormered Seedall. William Seedall 
descended from a long line of ancestors resi- 
dent in England, he being a representative 
citizen and a merchant tailor for many years 
of his life. Born in 1812, when he was fifty 
years of age he joined a colony of Mormon 
emigrants with whom he journeyed to Davis 
county, Utah, that he might have un- 
disturbed opportunities and privileges of wor- 



shiping God according to the dictates of his 
own conscience. He was not long spared t<» 
give service to the church, in which he held 
the 'office of elder, for his death occurred in 
1864. at the age of fifty-two years. His faith- 
ful wife, who started with him on his journej 
to his new home in the West, succumbed to 
the hardships of the overland journey, died 
on the way. and was buried near South Pass. 
Wyo., being the mother of four children, by 
whom she was sincerely mourned. 

John R. Seedall. from the age of twelve 
years, has maintained an independent posi- 
tion in the world by his own exertions, not 
only providing for himself and his necessities. 
but steadily advancing in prosperity, and by 
his care and thoughtful recognition of busi- 
ness principles and his industrious application 
of business methods to the problem of exist- 
ence, he is now not only in independent cir- 
cumstances, but in possession of a cumulative 
and rapidly increasing source of income, 
through which he has become one of the solid 
and substantial stockmen of the county. 
From the first he has devoted his energies to 
the various departments of agricultural life, 
not only attending to general farming, but 
early making a specialty of raising sheep, 
which vocation he has conducted in Utah and 
Idaho for fully twenty years. In 1888 he 
came to Bingham count}- and purchased a 
suitable ranch, situated 'eight miles northeast 
of Idaho Falls, bringing with him a fine band 
of sheep, and here he has since made his resi- 
dence, adding yearly to the valuable improve- 
ments of his property and increasing the 
number of his -flocks, his business becoming 
one of scope and importance. His original 
purchase consisted of 240 acres of land, to 
which he has since added eighty acres. Of 
course a live and public-spirited stockman of 
this part of Idaho must pay especial attention 
to irrigation, and Mr. Seedall is no exception 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES., IDAHO. 



399 



to the rule and he holds quite an interest in 
the Harrison Irrigation Canal. 

On October 16, 1884, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Seedall and Miss Mary Ritchie, 
a native of Utah and a daughter of James and 
Hannah (Bright) Ritchie, who came from 
their native land of England to Utah as mem- 
bers of a Mormon company, locating" in 
Weber county, where they resided until their 
death. Of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Seedal one, William R., is deceased and is 
buried at Iona, Idaho, and the others are 
■John L., born on March 11, 1886; Nancy, 
born on January 12, 1889; William, born on 
October 29, 1890, died on November 14, 
1890; Alice A., born on October 10, 1891 ; 
Albert, born on April 26, 1894; Jennie R., 
born on October 22, 1896; Mary R., born on 
January 13, 1899; Bessie R., born on June 
17, 1901 ; Ruth, born on August 22, 1903. 

ARCHIBALD W. SERVICE. 

The man who gains title to the distinction 
of having been the architect of his own for- 
tune is the one who can see and utilize the 
opportunities that surround his path, hold- 
ing no obstacles as insurmountable, and ever 
pressing steadily onward to the goal of pro- 
nounced success. Among the successful 
business men of Pocatello is Archibald W. 
Service, who has shown an invincible spirit 
and attained prosperity through honorable 
and worthy means. He started out in life 
when but fourteen years of age, his chief 
equipment being a modest education, and, re- 
lying on his own powers to dare and to do, 
he stands today as one of the representative 
citizens of Bannock county, Idaho, and a valu- 
able business factor of Pocatello, in which city 
he made his residence in 1890, being one of 
the pioneer settlers. 

Mr. Service was born in Glasgow, Scot- 



land, on May 27, 1855, a son of John R. and 
Janet (Wilkin) Service, both representatives 
of families long connected with the history of 
Scotland, his father being a carpenter and a 
son of George Service, a grocer. Receiving" 
a solid education in the national schools of 
Scotland, he accompanied his parents in their 
emigration to the United States in 1869, 
settling in Oskosh, Wis., where his parents 
still reside, the father at the age of seventy- 
two years and the mother at seventy-one. He 
continued his education in the excellent pub- 
lic schools of that city, thereafter engaging 
in the lumber business in Wisconsin, and 
continuing thus employed until 1890, when, 
coming to Pocatello-, he here established a 
lumber yard and became a dealer not only in 
lumber but in wood and coal, now having his 
office at 133 South Cleveland avenue, his 
pleasant residence being maintained at 613 
Garfield avenue, South. Mr. Service, in 
business relations, has manifested those 
sterling qualities characteristic of the Scotch 
nation, honest integrity, thrift and industry, 
and as a result has placed himself among the 
independent men of the community, being 
considered as solid in financial relations as in 
all other relations of life. Politically he is 
prominently identified with the Republican 
party and has been a member of the city coun- 
cil of Pocatelloi for the past two years, while 
fraternally he holds membership as a Knight 
Templar in the Masonic fraternity and has 
"crossed the sands" in the Mystic Shrine. 

The marriage of Mr. Service with Miss 
Emily Courtney, occurred at Clemansville, 
Wis., she being a native of that state, and a 
daughter of David Courtney, who with his 
family had emigrated from England to Wis- 
consin as a pioneer of that section of the 
state. Mr. and Mrs. Service have two chil- 
dren: Walter D., who is efficiently serving as 
a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of 



400 



PROGRESSIVE MEN' OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Pocatello. and a winsome daughter, Ethel L. 
Mr. Service has the reputation of being up- 
right in all his relations with his fellow men. 
and holds the universal confidence and respect 
of his friends and acquaintances in the county 
and city of his residence. 

JOHN F. SHELLEY. 

Prominently connected from childhood with 
the business and political movements that have 
interested the people of the section of his resi- 
dence, and esteemed by all as a trustworthy offi- 
cial, a sagacious counsellor and an able leader. 
John F. Shelley, now. one of the leading mer- 
chants and business operators of Bingham 
county, Idaho, where his headquarters are 
maintained as the Shelley Mercantile Co., of 
the town of Shelley, to which he had tbe dis- 
tinction of giving his name, is a native of Utah, 
where he was born on August 30, 1862, at 
American Fork, being a son of Thomas and 
Charlotte (Ellsmere) Shelley, natives of Eng- 
land, who emigrated from their native land in 
1850 with a company of Mormons, coming di- 
rectly to Utah that they might enjoy the unre- 
stricted privileges of their church relations, 
first locating for two years at Salt Lake City, 
then making their home at American Forks as 
earlv pioneers, where the father still resides, 
having been for a number of years a most effi- 
cient and popular teacher of his ward. The pa- 
ternal grandfather accompanied the father to 
Utah, while the mother was not favored with 
the sight of her prospective home, being 
drowned in the Missouri River while en route. 

John F. Shellev attained manhood in an at- 
mosphere of combined culture, intelligence ami 
industry, acquiring there those habits of correct 
personality and sound moral and religious prin- 
ciples which have been universally manifested 
in his career to the present time. Receiving 
an excellent education, at the age of twentv 



years he engaged in pedagogic work, which he 
continued for years with marked success and 
appreciation, his first acquaintanceship with 
Idaho being in 1885, when he became principal 
of the school at Iona, Bingham count}', attain- 
ing the same marked success there as had here- 
tofore characterized his labors as a teacher, and 
becoming extensively and popularly known. 

He was not merely a scholar, but a man of 
activity as well, and he therefore availed him- 
self of the opportunities for obtaining a home 
which were so plentifully presented in this 
count}-, and engaged in farming operations. A.S 
the nucleus of his efforts he filed on a home- 
stead of 160 acres one and one-half miles from 
Iona. and there located. Perceiving, however, 
that in another field he could more largely serve 
the community, in 1888 he established a store 
of general merchandise at Iona as the Iona 
Mercantile Co. Conducting this with rare tact 
and financial ability for a period of five years, 
he removed his residence to the new town >t 
Shelley, of which he was the founder, and there 
engaged in merchandising operations of scope 
and importance, becoming the principal factor 
in the Shelley Mercantile Co.. which displays 
in its well-arranged store a large stock of gen- 
eral merchandise, farm implements and other 
necessaries of life and comfort pertaining to 
and suitable for the needs and desires of the 
people of this section. With this establishment 
he has been personally identified, taking part 
in its growth and being a leading factor in its 
prosperity. He is also the proprietor of the 
Shelley Rolling Mills, an institution that ranks 
high as one of the elements of the increasing 
prosperity of this section and furnishing em- 
ployment to a large number of men. and this 
also he has conducted to success. In his po- 
litical affiliations Mr. Shelley is a pronounced 
Republican, maintaining the principles and poli- 
cies that have ever been identified with the 
growth and prosperity of this political party 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



401 



in all sections of the country, and his advice 
and personal efforts have made him one of 
the most popular as well as influential men 01 
the party in the county and southeastern 
Idaho. 

Mr. Shelley is a positive, energetic and self- 
reliant individual, quick to see and prompt to 
execute, ever punctual in the discharge of all 
of his obligations. Straightforward and fair- 
minded, he inspires confidence in those with 
whom he comes in contact in business or other 
relations. Courteous, ambitious and industri- 
ous, excelling in usefulness and solid merit, he 
has shown himself a citizen of enlarged reli- 
gious sentiment, and as the bishop of Shelley 
ward he has rendered efficient service to his 
church, being one of the best exemplars of its 
dignified usefulness. It was on August 30, 
1872, that Mr. Shelley became a married man; 
the ceremonies that bound him in wedded life 
with Theodocia Chipman, a native of Ameri- 
can Fork, Utah, and a daughter of Washburn 
and Mindwell (Huston) Chipman, occurred in 
Salt Lake City. This union has been a most 
felicitous one, a congeniality of taste and tem- 
perament making a most, harmonious marriage, 
which is evinced by the genial and hospitable 
atmosphere of their attractive home. They 
have six children : Theodocia C, Charlotte E., 
Thomas W., Mary E., Louisa E. and Zina E. 

Bishop Shelley is now in the full prime of 
mature manhood, and in the possession of 
the full vigor of mental and physical power. 
Education and experience, softened by a deep 
religious sentiment, have fitted him emphatic- 
ally for a leader in the community, while his 
influence is universally enlisted on the right 
side. His most conspicuous trait is unswerving 
persistence; when once he has undertaken an 
enterprise no stone is left unturned until suc- 
cess has crowned his efforts. Such citizens as 
he constitute the best strength and wealth of 
the state. 



CHARLES SHURTLIFF. 

The Shurtliff family is one of the oldest of 
the New England states, persons of the name 
having participated with gallantry in all of 
the wars that section of the Union has waged, 
from the early Colonial struggles with the 
French and Indians, down through the Revo- 
lution, war with Mexico, the great war of 
the Sections and the Spanish- American war, 
and, in various other fields, civil, religious, 
professional and industrial, they have taken 
and maintained high standing in every gener- 
ation from the early days and are especially 
numerous in Massachusetts, New Hampshire 
and Maine. Charles Shurtliff, of this review, 
who was born at Ogden, Utah, on January 
26, 1856, springs from this stock, since his 
parents, Luman and Alta Marie (Gaylord) 
Shurtliff, had their birth and education in 
New England, coming to Utah in 1849 an( ^ 
crossing the plains in a large and well-de- 
fined ox train, meeting with no serious dif- 
ficulties from the roving bands of Indians, 
and settling at Ogden, thereafter passing a 
quiet, but not uneventful, existence as agri- 
culturists until the death of the mother at 
an advanced ag'e, being survived by the 
father only four short years, when he died at 
seventy-six years of age. 

Charles Shurtliff may not inaptly be 
termed a self-made man, since from the age of 
fourteen years he has been the architect of 
his own fortunes, and whatever he has ac- 
quired of financial reinforcement and estate 
has been the product of his own industry, 
sagacity and determinate endeavors, his first 
efforts being three years' labor in connection 
with sawmilling operations. Then followed 
a series of successful activities in life, for, 
commencing in railroad construction work, 
his abilities and capability for grasping the 
right thought at the right time caused his 



402 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



promotion to the position of brakeman. and 
in due time to that of a conductor, in both of 
these capacities winning the approval of his 
superiors and the friendship of his associ- 
ates. 

Determining to make a home free from 
the discomforts and unpleasant features of 
railroad life, in 1883 Mr. Shurtliff came to 
Lewisville, in the Upper Valley of the Snake 
River, of Idaho, where he used his home- 
stead right on an eligibly located quarter-sec- 
tion of land on which he established the 
family home, and on which he has since de- 
voted his time to the great work of clearing, 
developing and improving, paying especial 
attention to irrigation in connection with the 
building of the Parks & Lewisville Canal, in 
which company be has been a director and 
is a stockholder, having brought much of bis 
land into productive fertility and raising 
bounteous crops of grain, hay. etc., and hav- 
ing erected commodious and suitable build- 
ings, including a substantial residence, barns, 
sheds, corrals, and other accessories de- 
manded in the scientific culture of his estate 
and his stockraising operations, being con- 
sidered a successful farmer and an acute and 
shrewd merchant and man of affairs, viewing 
political questions in the light of Republican- 
ism, and public matters of a local character 
as a liberal and broad-minded contributor to 
all things he deems of substantial benefit to 
the community, while he occupies a well- 
established position of worth and pietv in the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, having been or- 
dained as elder when but eighteen years of 
age. In 1896 he engaged in merchandising 
at Lewisville, which he continued with an in- 
creasing and profitable trade until 1902, 
when his increasing agricultural interests 
caused him to sell his business that he might 
fully give his time to the ranch and its con- 
nected duties. 



Mr. Shurtliff has had the fortunate ad- 
vantage of having made a most congenial 
marriage in his union, on December 26, 1K74, 
with Miss Alzina Smith, a lady who has fully 
harmonized with and supplemented his plans 
and labors. She was born on May 2$. 1859, 
at Farmington. Utah, a daughter of Jonathan 
and Nancy (Taylor) Smith, who were natives 
of Virginia and, like so many others, brought 
their goods and chattels to the Mormon Zion 
with ox teams along the well-traveled and 
dangerous overland trail, making their first 
Utah residence at Farmington, after twenty 
years removing to Harrison. Utah, residing 
ten years, and Weston, Idaho, where they re- 
sided in the calm consciousness of having lived 
lives of pious rectitude until their deaths, the 
father being then seventy-eight years of age 
and the mother sixty-nine. Fifteen children 
have come to the Shurtliff home to bless the 
lives of their honored parents, namely : 
Charles J., born on December 9. 1875: 
George G.. born on December 25, 1877 ; War- 
ren L., born on October 28. 1879; Leila A., 
born on October 17, 1881. died on August 12. 
1882; Llewellyn W.. born on May 27. 1883; 
Joseph H., born on August 5, 1885; Pleasant 
Ray, born on June 28, 1887; Alta M., born 
on December 11, 1888, died on January 28. 
1889; Eva, born on April 8. 1890: Leon, born 
on September 27, 1892; Myrtle D.. born on 
September 19, 1894; John G., born July 17. 
1896; Olive A*., born on January 16, 1897; 
Noah F.. born August iq, 1899. died March 
19. 1900; Jessie M., born October 15. 1901. 

ELI T. SIMMONS. 

In this publication will be found memoirs 
of many who have figured prominently in the 
business, public and social life of the state of 
Idaho, each contributing in bis sphere of action 
to the well-beins: of the commonwealth and to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



403 



the advancement of its normal and ultimate 
growth. Such men merit definite tributes of 
respect in a work of this nature, and in connec- 
tion with the records of those who in a marked 
and useful degree have added to' the material 
prosperity and industrial activities of Bingham 
county, Eli T. Simmons is known and respected 
as a sterling citizen. 

He was born on December 20, 1862, in 
Weber county, Utah, being a son of William 
B. and Mary (Taylor) Simmons. His father 
died when Eli was a lad of only four years, and 
his memory retains nothing of him only that 
he was a member of the Mormon church and 
that his marriage occurred in England. The 
mother was born in England, a daughter of 
Joseph and Harriet Taylor, her father being 
also a native of England, who came to this 
country and started for Utah that he might 
there enjoy the full privileges of his church 
relations, with his wife, drawing their worldly 
possessions across the plains in a handcart, but 
neither parent lived to reach their destination in 
the promised land, both dying on the plains. 

Thus doubly orphaned, Mr Simmons, from 
the very threshold of life, was seriously handi- 
capped, but from his earliest years he has 
proven himself actively and deeply interested 
in every honest enterprise that' has presented 
itself to him, and he has been one of the con- 
tributing forces to the progress of civilization 
in the land of his residence. His early years 
were passed in Weber county, where, by his at- 
tention to the practical labors performed 
therein, he became fully acquainted with the 
best methods of conducting diversified farming 
and the raising of stock under the conditions 
existing in this country, laboring for others un- 
til at the age of eighteen years he engaged in 
farming for himself for one season in Utah, 
thence coming, in 188 1, to Idaho, where he was 
employed on the Oregon Short Line Railroad, 
being connected for some years thereafter with 



railroad operations, for a portion of the time, 
on the Northern Pacific and later hauling rail- 
road ties in Bear Lake county, thereafter locat- 
ing in the Lost River country, and afterwards 
engaged in ranching in Marsh Valley, in the 
southeastern part of Idaho, where he was con- 
tinuously and successfully occupied with stock- 
raising operations until March, 1900. 

He then transferred his business headquar- 
ters to Bingham county, and is here successfully 
engaged in the prosecution of the agricultural 
interests with which he has connected himseif, 
while in business and social circles he has a 
high standing, being always found at the front 
when an enterprise for the advancement of the 
public or community is contemplated or started. 
He possesses great breadth of view, unyielding 
energy, public-spirit of a high order, generos- 
ity in every good cause, while in the circles of 
the Mormon church, of which he is a devoted 
member, he is esteemed for the strength of his 
religious principles and his devotion to its 
cause, holding at the present time the office of 
elder. While a resident of Marsh Valley he 
was nominated and elected by a very compli- 
mentary vote as a justice of the peace, holding 
that office with conceded ability and to the sat- 
isfaction of the public. 

On December 10, 1895, was celebrated the 
marriage connecting Mr. Simmons and Mrs. 
William Davis, formerly Miss Sarah Treasure, 
in marital bonds. She is a native of Nebraska, 
born while her parents, William and Mary 
(Lewis) Treasure, were crossing the plains in 
1862 on their way to Utah, to enjoy the privi- 
leges of the Mormon church. Her parents 
were born in Wales, their residence after lo- 
cating in Utah being continued in that state as 
ranchers until 1879, when they located in Ban- 
nock county, in the southeastern part of Idaho, 
where her father still resides, an honored citizen 
and devoted Christian, his faithful wife having 
long since departed to the better land, her in- 



404 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



terment taking place at Smithfield, Utah. Mrs. 
Simmons has been twice married. By her first 
husband, William Davis, she had the following 
children : Mary A., Elizabeth and William, the 
children of Mr. Simmons being Alma, Sarah, 
Martha, Lee, deceased, Nellie, deceased, Dora, 
David E. and Violet. 

Since taking up his residence on the ranch 
where he now resides, Mr. Simmons, by his 
application and intelligence, has brought it to a 
high state of cultivation, has provided himself 
with irrigating facilities for producing bounte- 
ous crops of all the agricultural products of this 
section of the state, while his fine herds contain 
some valuable specimens of the best breeds. 

FRANCIS L. WILCOX. 

The scion of old Colonial families that 
bore a gallant part in the war of the Revolu- 
tion, several of their members being commis- 
sioned officers in the Colonial army in that 
great contest for independence and freedom, 
Francis L. Wilcox in his day, during the 
great American Civil war, valiantly followed 
the inspiring example of his ancestors and 
sustained their good reputation. He was born 
on April I, 1840, at Jackson, Susquehanna 
county, Pa., the son of Elon and Elvira 
(Bryant) Wilcox, who were also Pennsyl- 
vanians by birth. On both sides of his house 
his European progenitors came to America 
in Colonial times and aided in settling the 
country and redeeming it from the dominion 
of the savage. Family tradition states that 
the emigrant ancestor on the father's side 
came over in the Mayflower and settled in 
New England. The one on the mother's side 
was also of English nativity, and the ances- 
tors of both of them held honorable records 
in the old country. The father of Mr. Wilcox 
was a Susquehanna county. Pa., farmer, liv- 
ing in that county from boyhood until 1857, 



when he moved to the neighborhood of Sul- 
livan county in the same state, where he ac- 
quired a fine home and developed a farm of 
superior excellence, remaining there until 
death. The mother passed away at their 
Bradford county home on February 9. 1889, 
and the father just one month later, on 
March 9th. 

Their son Francis grew to the age of 
seventeen in his native county, then went with 
his parents to Sullivan county, where he 
finished his education and reached man's es- 
tate, living at home and working on the farm 
with his father until soon after the breaking 
out of the Civil war. On January 1. 1862, 
obeying one of the early calls for volunteers 
to defend the Union, he enlisted in Company 
K, Fifth Pennsylvania • Infantry, and was 
soon thereafter with his regiment in the Army 
of the Potomac and in active service in Vir- 
ginia and other Southern states. He was 
taken ill. however, and sent home. But as 
soon as he recovered his health sufficiently 
he again enlisted, this time in Company G, 
One Hundred and Eighty-fifth New York In- 
fantry, entering the service at Monroeton on 
September 6, 1864. In this company he 
served until the end of the war and found his 
duties arduous and exacting. Again in the 
Army of the Potomac he took part in all the 
campaigns of that great fighting organiza- 
tion toward the end of the struggle and lead- 
ing up to the surrender of General Lee. 

In one engagement eleven bullets pierced 
his clothing and a minie ball entered his leg. 
At the same time he was taken prisoner and 
was obliged to go seven days before his wound 
was dressed. At length he was one of a num- 
ber rescued by troops under General Sheri- 
dan, the character of his wounds then being 
such that he was sent to the hospital in Wash- 
ington, where he received proper attention. 
He arrived in .Washington on the dav of 




MR. AND MRS. F. L. WILCOX. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



407 



President Lincoln's burial, and, after lingering 
in the hospital for three months, he was finally 
discharged from the service on Aug'ust 24, 
1865. Since then his gallantry and valor have 
been recognized by a pension from the gov- 
ernment. After he recovered from the effects 
of his wounds, which kept him disabled for 
nearly two years, he engaged in farming in 
Pennsylvania, remaining there until 1877. 

In 1876 Mr. Wilcox and his wife became 
members of the Mormon church, and, in 
March, 1877, they started with their family to 
make their future home in Utah near the cen- 
tral government of the great religious or- 
ganization with which they had cast in their 
lot. When they reached Saunders county, 
Neb., they halted on the Platte River, 
and tried farming in that region for a year. 
In October, 1878, they came on to Salt Lake 
City, and, locating his family there, Mr. Wil- 
cox accepted a position with the Oregon Short 
Line Railroad and came to Black Rock, 
Idaho, near Pocatello, to take charge of sec- 
tion work. He remained there until the 
spring of 1879 and then went to the neighbor- 
hood of Preston to perform the same duties on 
this branch of the road. 

Seeing the great possibilities of the region 
around this town, he determined to take up 
land here and make this his home, and ac- 
cordingly, in the summer of 1879, he located 
with his family on his present ranch, situated 
three-fourths of a mile north of Preston. One 
of his sons was by this time old enough and 
otherwise qualified to manage the ranch and 
he continued in the employ of the railroad 
company for a number of years longer, giv- 
ing all possible attention, however, to build- 
ing up, developing and improving his ranch. 

Mr. Wilcox was the third settler in the 
neighborhood of his residence, and from his 
arrival here he took a deep and active part 
in promoting its welfare and developing its 



resources. In 1891 he left the railroad service 
and since that time he has devoted "his whole 
time to the work of his ranch. His place lies 
within the limits of the townsite of Preston, 
and is one of the finest in this section of the 
country. It yields abundantly of the products 
suitable t© this part of the country, and 
among its features of special interest is a 
thrifty young" orchard of his own planting, his 
proud record being that of 100 trees which 
he set in the ground ninety-nine are living and 
in excellent condition. 

On April 4, 1866, at Monroeton, Pa., Mr. 
Wilcox married with Miss Jennie J. Secor, a 
native of that state and a daughter of Francis 
A. and Elizabeth A. (Welch) Secor, who were 
both also born and reared in Pennsylvania. 
Her forefathers, like his, came to this coun- 
try in Colonial times and were prominent in 
its early history. Her father's people came 
from France and her mother's from Ireland. 
Among them were Revolutionary soldiers and 
civil magistrates, merchants, farmers and pro- 
fessional men, workers in ever)' line of useful 
effort. Her father was a farmer living all 
of his clays near Monroeton, where her mother 
died on April 17, 1894, and he on September 
26, 1895. Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox have had 
eight children, five of whom are living: Bion 
D. ; Katie S., wife of Louis Gooch; Maggie 
M. ; George L. ; William Harvey. The de- 
ceased ones are Cora L., who died on October 
10, 1897, aged twenty-eight years; Francis E., 
who died on February 7, 1879, aged six years ; 
Herman L., who died on February 21. 1879. 
aged four years. The first named is buried at 
Preston and the others at Salt Lake City. 

WILLIAM M. SIZEMORE. 

A native of the state of Alabama, having 
the remarkable record of serving loyally and 
faithfully as an enlisted soldier in both Con- 



4o8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



federate and Federal armies of the Civil war, 
and being now a resident of Georgetown, 
Bear Lake county, Idaho, William M. Size- 
more well deserves the pen of the historian. 
He was born in Alamo count)', Ala., on 
August ii, 1836, his parents, Fealey and 
Mary J. (Terry) Sizemore, also being natives 
of the same state, where they passed their 
entire dives. Passing his early life in his na- 
tive county and receiving his education in its 
public schools, he was engag'ed in various 
employments until the great war between the 
states projected itself upon the country, when 
his devotion to his state caused him to en- 
list as a private soldier in the Thirty-sixth 
Alabama Infantry, Confederate States of 
America, serving under General Jackson and 
General Hood and taking active part in the 
momentous battles of Chickamauga, Mission- 
ary Ridge, Coatland, Mobile Bay, where he 
was engaged in the defense of Fort Morgan, 
Shiloh, Crane Neck and Decatur. Ala., where 
he was captured in 1864 and sent to Camp 
Chase, Ohio, where he was held in captivity 
for three months, thereafter enlisting in the 
Union army and accompanying his company 
to Camp Douglass, Utah, in 1865. filling the 
duties of his service with acceptability until 
his honorable discharge in 1866 at Camp 
Douglass. On March 5, 1866, while at this 
camp, he was married to Miss Mary J. Cook, 
a native of England who had come with her 
parents to Utah as pioneers in the early years 
of the Mormon settlement, where her father 
did not long survive, her mother being now 
a resident of San Francisco, having attained 
the age of seventy-one years. 

Commencing his married life in Salt Lake 
City, two years later he removed to Hooper, 
Utah, where he was engaged in farming and 
stockraising until 1871, when he came to 
Georgetown, Idaho, and made the family 
home on the land where he still resides, his 



industry, care and successful stockraising de- 
veloping him not only a good income but a 
finely improved ranch of 180 acres. A quiet, 
unostentatious man of home-loving ways, he 
has no desire for public office or for notoriety 
in any form, finding in the society of his 
wife and children his greatest pleasure. The 
names and births of the children are. Mary 
S., born February 18, 1867; Fealey F., born 
January 2, 1869; William M., born August 1, 
1871 ; Jesse J., born December 11. 1873; John 
R., born March 20, 1876; James L., born Sep- 
tember 27, 1878; George H.. born October 
9, 1880; Minerva I., born November 9. 1882; 
Sarah F., born January 24. 1885; Amanda 
M., born March 17, 1887; Daniel T., born 
May 1, 1889; Charles E., born September 
11, 1891 ; Walter C. Eugene, born April 
25, 1894. 

ABEL SMART. 

There is no man in the state of Idaho 
to whom the appellation of skilled fanner can 
be given with more correctness than to Abel 
Smart, of Georgetown. Bear Lake county, 
whose well-improved and highly cultivated 
estate of 200 acres gives abundance of 
evidence of his thorough understanding- and 
practice of the best methods of husbandry, 
everywhere being manifest a system, an order 
and a thrift which make it a model farm, and 
from the large annual crops of hay and grain 
it produces it is an exceedingly profitable one 
withal. As one of the progressive and in- 
telligent men of his section of the state a 
record of the life and accomplishments of this 
popular citizen finds a fitting place in this 
volume. 

Born in England on January 30. 184S. 
the son of William and Jane (Stockham) 
Smart, he there received his education and 
usefully passed his life until 1868. when, to 
fullv eniov the advantages accruing' from his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



409 



membership in the Mormon church, with 
which he had become affiliated, he emigrated, 
coming- direct to Utah and making his home 
in Smithfield, where his abilities soon found 
recognition, and, for a long term of years, 
he very creditably discharged the duties con- 
nected with membership on the city council. 

The connection of Mr. Smart with the ag- 
ricultural interests of Bear Lake county com- 
menced with his removal hither in 1887, lo- 
cating at once at his present location, from 
that time giving much care, thought and at- 
tention to the conversion of sagebrush land 
into cultivated fields that might well delight 
the eye. He has been a very busy man. In 
connection with his diversified farming he 
has successfully conducted stockraising-, and 
is now running a large band of cattle. He is 
also engaged in the manufacture of lumber, 
being the proprietor of a sawmill. In the 
career of Mr. Smart honest integrity and re- 
ligious • faith have ever been distinguishing 
elements and so it happens that the esteem of 
a large range of personal friends has come to 
him' in a high measure and the eventime of 
his life promises to be bright and cloudless. 

During his residence in Idaho Mr. Smart 
has discharged his duties as a citizen in a 
quiet manner, manifesting interest in and giv- 
ing his assistance to all plans and purposes 
intended for the betterment of the com- 
munity, but he has not sought office nor de- 
voted his time to political agitation. His 
church has, however, always found him ready 
to give his time and means to the furtherance 
of its welfare and he has filled two missions 
in this state. At Salt Lake City, Utah, on 
September 20, 1869, Mr. Smart wedded Miss 
Sarah Gittins, also a native of England and 
a daughter of James and Mary (Powell) Git- 
tins. She accompanied her parents in their 
immigration into Utah in 1868 and they 
thereafter resided in Wellsville, Cache county, 



until their deaths, being honored and highly 
valued citizens, the father dying in 1873 and 
the mother long surviving him, her death oc- 
curring in 1894. 

Of the twelve children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Smart, ten are now living. We herewith give 
the names and date of births and deaths : 
Abel, born June 9, 1870; William, born De- 
cember 7, 1 87 1, died July 21, 1877; James, 
born May 20, 1873 ; Sarah, born June 3, 1875 ; 
Alary, born April 14, 1877; Jane, born June 
20, 1879, died July 15, 1903; Lottie, born 
December 7, 1881 ; Maud, born March 28, 
1887; Frederick, born May 6, 1888; Ezra, 
born April 13, 1889, died January 14, 1890; 
Parley, born August 4, 1891 ; Hazel, born 
October 29, 1893. 

JOHN T. SMELLIE. 

Not alone in Utah, but in all parts of Amer- 
ica, and especially so in the Great West, have 
the sons of Scotland been among the first in 
every department of the world's activities, and 
everywhere the)' have filled and are filling con- 
spicuous places of trust, honor and prosperity. 
And as it has been in all other parts of the land, 
so it is when we come to consider the settlement 
and development of the Snake River Valley of 
Idaho. Here, as elsewhere, the Scotchman is 
one of the factors of successful operations, for 
the characteristics of the Scotch people are a 
keen thrift, untiring perseverance, shrewd 
financial ability and an enterprise that never 
slackens. These reflections come to mind in 
considering the decidedly prosperous and bene- 
ficial career of John T. Smellie, one of the lead- 
ing successful men of Fremont county, Idaho, 
who has been actively identified with its af- 
fairs, civil, social, financial and ecclesiastical, 
since his advent in the valley in 1885, and it is 
with pleasure that we place a review of his life 
on record that it may prove not only a memo- 



4io 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



rial, but a stimulus and incentive to aspiring' 
youth. 

Mr. Smellie was born in Bathgate, Scot- 
land, on May 28. 1863, a son of David and 
Mary J. (Anderson) Smellie, who emigrated in 
1 88 1, coming to America and first locating in 
Kansas, where the father purchased a farm and 
resided for three years, thereafter removing to 
Salt Lake City, where he has since resided, en- 
gaging in various and widely diverging lines of 
commercial activity, among them being min- 
ing, farming, and music, and where he is the 
owner of real-estate interests. At the age of 
eighteen years the subject of this review com- 
menced his independent business life, and after 
working on a farm for eighteen months he went 
to Salt Lake City, where for a time he was en- 
gaged in various occupations, in the winter of 
1884-5 attending the University of Deseret, 
immediate!)' subsequent to this school life com- 
ing to eastern Idaho and stopping at Market 
Lake. He traveled to Rexburg on foot, a dis- 
tance of twenty-two miles, arriving there with 
$70, which he at once invested in village lots, 
leaving him without a dollar in a land of 
strangers. "Given the man and the opportu- 
nity, and the combination is complete." Mr. 
Smellie had studied civil engineering, the set- 
tlers were extremely desirous for some one to 
lay out their prospective canals for irrigating 
purposes, and so his opportunity came and was 
seized. 

Surveying irrigating canals and ditches for 
six months, he then became the superintendent 
of the first mercantile establishment of Rex- 
burg until 1887, thereafter being assigned by 
his church to three years' mission work in New- 
Zealand, on his return therefrom becoming a 
bookkeeper for a Rexburg merchant until 1895, 
when his capability for successfully conducting 
mercantile and financial affairs procured for 
him the superintendency of the Rexburg 
branch of the Z. C. M. I., and in this important 



position he was retained until the business was 
sold in 1 901. During these years of successful 
activity, Mr. Smellie had placed his surplus 
earnings in fortunate investments in land, 
sheep, etc., and is today an extensive real-es- 
tate owner and the possessor of a large number 
of sheep. He was elected and re-elected to the 
office of county surveyor, holding the office for 
two terms, but, as his time was fully occupied, 
these official duties were discharged by a com- 
petent deputy. 

For many years an earnest member of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints. Mr. Smellie ha^ 
almost constantly been in the incumbency of 
important ecclesiastical office, being a member 
of the high council for twelve years, also a val- 
ued member of the stake board of education. 
and, commencing with this body in its infancy, 
he has been an important factor in its growth 
and prosperity, and has seen its development to 
its present condition of strength and influence. 
He has most capably filled the positions of 
teacher, elder, priest, high priest and one of the 
Seventies, and is now the stake superintendent 
of the Sunday school of the Fremont stake of 
Zion and also one of the twelve high counsel- 
lors presiding over the stake. On October 9, 
1885. Mr. Smellie married with Miss Marh 
Ricks, a daughter of Thomas E.. and Tamar 
(Loder) Ricks, and for an account of the truly 
eminent father of Mrs. Smellie the reader is 
referred to other pages of this work. From 
this highly felicitous union seven children 
have been born, Guinevere, Mary, Irene, 
Mabel. Ruth, David and John. 

GEORGE V. SMITH. Jr. 

George V. Smith. Jr., recently the leading 
clothier of Preston. Idaho, where he con- 
ducted a flourishing business in his line until 
he sold to Ozro O. Crockett & Sons, on April 
], 1903, is a native of Smithfield, Utah, where 



BIXGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



411 



he was born on April 8, 1869. the son of 
George Y. and Johann (Kuckie) Smith, na- 
tives of the historic old city of Dundee, Scot- 
land, where the father worked at his trade as a 
carpenter, and where the}' both embraced the 
Mormon religion. In 1857 they came to the 
United States, landing at New York and pro- 
ceeding by rail to the Missouri River, from 
whence they crossed the plains with ox teams 
to Utah and settled at Smithfield. then but a 
small pioneer settlement, but full of life and 
vigor and promising a rapid and healthy 
growth. 

In this thriving community the father was 
kept busy at his trade, and having a fort for 
protection against the Indians it .prospered 
and developed without the usual interruptions 
incident to savage hostility. Mr. Smith con- 
tinued to work at his trade until about the 
year 1877, when he engaged in mercantile life 
as manager of Richardson & Douglass at 
Smithfield. Later he was associated with Mr. 
Richardson in the same line as manager, and 
in 1884 began an enterprise of the same kind 
for himself. He was also notary public and 
took an active interest in the public affairs of 
the town, which he helped to create and of 
which he was long one of the leading citizens. 
He died on August 30, 1903. and his wife 
died in 1S80 and was buried at Smithfield. 

George V. Smith, Jr.. grew to manhood 
and was educated at Smithfield. working on 
farms in the neighborhood until he was twenty 
years of age. He then went into the Farmers' 
Union Mills at that place and learned his 
trade as a miller, remaining in that employ- 
ment for three vears. In 1892 he was called on 
a mission to Scotland, the old home of his par- 
ents, and remained abroad two years, return- 
ing home in the spring of 1894, when he re- 
sumed work in the mills at Smithfield. In 
August, 1898, he left the mills and came to 
Preston. Idaho, and started the mercantile en- 



terprise in which he was so long engaged. He 
gave his business close and careful attention, 
and made his establishment one of the popular 
emporiums of the county and laid a large extent 
of country under tribute to its trade, taking 
rank as one of the most progressive and en- 
terprising business men in this part of the 
state. 

Mr. Smith was married in Logan Temple, 
L"tah, on September 9, 1896, to Miss Zerviah 
S. Green, a native of Utah, whose parents, 
Evan M. and Susie (Piatt) Green, the former 
a native of New 7 York and the latter of Eng- 
land, embraced the. Mormon faith, when young, 
at their respective homes, and married after 
the arrival at Salt Lake where they became 
acquainted. After their marriage thev settled 
at Smithfield where the father engaged in 
farming until late in the seventies, when they 
moved to the southern part of the state, re- 
maining there until his death in 1882. After 
that event the widow and children returned to 
Smithfield, where they are now living. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith have two children, daughters. 
Mr. Smith has always been active in church 
affairs, especially so in Sunday-school work. 
He has been on one home mission since com- 
ing to Preston. 

OLIVER T. SMITH. 

Oliver T. Smith, who is a representative of 
a family prominent in the early Colonial days 
and in the thrilling events that occurred on 
the soil of South Carolina in the period of the 
Revolution, and which from that time to the 
present has produced generation after gener- 
ation of energetic, law-abiding and industrious 
citizens, and who is personally recognized as 
one of the intelligent and progressive ranch- 
men of Bingham county, was born on April 
2/, 1S57. near Aberdeen, Monroe county. 
Miss., being a son of Thompson and Josephine 



412 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



(Lourey) Smith, both of whom were horn in 
South Carolina, there marrying and thereafter 
making their home on a plantation in Missis- 
sippi, where the father died in 1861, leaving 
the subject of this review an orphan at the 
tender age of four years. In 1869 he accom- 
panied his mother on her emigration to Utah, 
where she made her home in Beaver county, 
and where her second husband, Ashael Ben- 
nett, long conducted milling operations and 
died in 1896. By her first marriage she was 
the mother of two children, of which Oliver 
was the eldest. 

He attained manhood in Utah, where he 
received an excellent practical education in 
the schools of his place and period, becoming 
qualified to act as a surveyor, in which capac- 
itv he was employed for ten years by the 
United States government ; thereafter engag- 
ing in farming- and coming to Bingham 
county, Idaho, in 1885, he there filed on a 
homestead of 160 acres, situated at Taylor 
and in close proximity to the estate of 
eight}- acres, which he sold in 1902, and from 
that time until this sale he was connected with 
stockraising and the development of his ranch, 
in connection with diversified farming. He is a 
wide-awake, progressive citizen, deeply inter- 
ested in all that pertains to the welfare of his 
state and section, and with a record in public 
and private life which has won for him the re- 
spect and esteem of the public. 

In Beaver county, Utah, on June 13, 1877, 
Mr. Smith and Miss Emily Van Buskirk. a na- 
tive of Illinois and a daughter of Charles and 
Rachel (Black) Van Vleet, were united in mar- 
riage, her parents having been residents of 
Utah since the early years of the Civil war, 
being honored and representative citizens, 
holding a high place in the esteem of the peo- 
ple. There are three children in the family 
of Mr. and Mrs. Smith : Josephine, Edmund 
and Martha. The special attention of the 



subject of this review has been given to the 
raising of cattle, and horses, and in the hands 
which he is now running are some splendid 
specimens of fine stock, and he was also one 
of the originators and constructors of the 
Eagle & Willow Creek Irrigation Canal. 

In all the relations of life Mr. Smith has 
lived up to the full dignity of successful man- 
hood, has attained general esteem and is uni- 
versally popular. In November, 1902, he sold 
his ranch at Taylor and purchased property 
in hlaho Ealls. on which he has erected a 
fine, commodious brick residence of modern 
architecture — equipped with city water, elec- 
tric lights and al! the things necessary to make- 
it an up-to-date residence, and at the present 
lime he is engaged with the C. W. & M. Co. 
in charge of the lumber yard. He has also 
erected two four-room cottages which he 
rents, and these are also supplied with water 
and electric lights. 

JAMES N. SOUTHWTCK. 

The life story of this industrious citizen of 
Bingham county. Idaho, is not unlike many 
others in this land of boundless possibilities, 
but has its own specific details and features 
growing out of his life and the characteristics 
of the man. Thrown upon his own resources 
at the early age of nine years, he neither ex- 
pected nor found an easy way to success and 
prosperity, but resolutely hewed good fortune 
out of diverse circumstances by his diligent 
application and intelligent use of the means 
that came his way. He was born on May 29, 
1854, at West Brommidge. Staffordshire. Eng- 
land, a son of Edward and Mary (Alexander i 
Southwick. the Southwicks being an old and 
prominent family in England from time imme- 
morial. His father was successfully engaged 
for many years as a boot and shoe manufac- 
turer in his native land, but becoming inter- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



413 



ested in the Mormon doctrines in 1863. he emi- 
grated, coming to Utah and locating at Lehi, 
where he passed the remainder of his life and 
until he died in 1894, at the age of sixty-four 
years. The family was broken up while on the 
journey, the wife and mother falling a prey to 
the privations and hardships she endured while 
crossing the plains, dying en route, at the age 
of sixty-three years, and her body lies buried 
on the banks of the Platte River. Of her 
seven children, James N. Southwick, the sub- 
ject of this review, was the youngest. 

Deprived of a mother's care at the early age 
of nine years, it was not long before Mr. South- 
wick was caring for himself, and by his energy 
and diligent application he became skilled in 
the various occupations and employments con- 
nected with agricultural life, as a young man 
conducting farming for himself for a while at 
Lehi, thence, in 1888, removing to Bingham 
county, Idaho, where, on March 8th of that 
year, he located on a homestead of eighty 
acres, to which he has added ten more, lying 
less than five miles east of Idaho Falls, and 
here he has since given diligent attention to the 
development of his ranch, being engaged in 
cumulative and prosperous general farming 
and the raising of excellent herds of cattle, but 
taking especial pains and giving especial atten- 
tion to the raising of hogs, being prospered in 
his undertakings and ranking deservedly high 
as a business man. 

In politics he is known for his earnest alle- 
giance to the principles and doctrines of the 
Republican party, and he is ever ready to give 
a reason for his faith therein and to aid its can- 
didates in its political campaigns, always, how- 
ever shrinking from public office or any posi- 
tion that would take him from his home or the 
enjoyment of his social life. In his association 
with the Mormon church he is held in high es- 
teem, being in strong accord with the principles 
of his religion and holding the official position 
of high counsellor. 



On August 10, 1882, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Southwick with Miss Maryette Norton, 
a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, and a daugh- 
ter of Wylie Norton, one of the earliest pio- 
neers of the Mormon faith in Utah, who in 
that country occupied the position of one of the 
Seventies, and now, after his death, at an ad- 
vanced age, lies buried at Amnion, Idaho, 
whither he had come to pass his last days with 
his affectionate children. Mr. and Mrs. South- 
wick have had thirteen children, the seven fol- 
lowing being now living: Nancy, James, Se- 
retta, LeRoy, Mabel, Bertha and Emadine. 
Mr. Southwick takes a deep interest in the prog- 
ress and well-being of the community, and is 
considered one of the discreet, able and highly 
successful members of the community, com- 
manding the respect of the people of his ac- 
quaintance, being known as a man of inflexible 
integrity, who well merits recognition in this 
work as one of Bingham county's representa- 
tive citizens. 

CHARLES A. SPACKMAN. 

The virile young state of Idaho is draw- 
ing much of its life from the energetic sons of 
the West. Many of them, born in Utah, find 
that even in the brief space of time that has 
elapsed since the first Mormon immigrations 
came to the wilderness country of Deseret, 
that the demands of civilization have pressed 
into every corner of that state and penetrated 
every valley to its mountain head, and that 
therefore they must hie to other lands than 
the place of their nativity to secure homes of 
their own on the easy conditions which pre- 
vailed everywhere in the Great West but a 
few short years ago. Through this state of 
affairs Idaho is being largely benefited. To 
her benches and valleys, her mountain-sides 
and fertile plains is surging a human tide of 
the best element of the mother state of Utah, 
young' men with all the vigor, energy and pro- 



414 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ductive powers necessary for developing the 
unbounded, but yet undeveloped, resources 
that here abound in magnificent plentitude, 
and. among the number, who is doing well 
his share in the general scheme of this im- 
provement, is Charles Arthur Spackman, the 
popular postmaster of Lyons postoffice in 
Bingham county. 

He was born on January 28, 1870. in Mor- 
gan county, Utah, a son of Thomas and Sarah 
(Criddle) Spackman. his father coming from 
England with his father, also named Thomas, 
at the age of three years, and, after making 
his home for some years in New York City, 
where the elder Thomas was a watchmaker, 
in 1859 he came to Utah, crossing the plains 
with one of the numerous ox teams, then for 
a number of years engaging in sawmilling and 
in lumbering in Morgan county, where he 
later followed farming and cattleraising with 
eminent success, thence removing to Rich 
county, there prosperously continuing in the 
stock business for fourteen years, also having 
extensive cattle interests in the Big Horn 
Basin of Wyoming, when, returning to Mor- 
gan county, he purchased his old homestead 
and is now passing the evening of his life amid 
his old friends and associates. His wife, a 
native of England, was at the time of their 
marriage a resident of Morgan county, com- 
ing to the United States with the family of 
her father, William Criddle, when she was 
fifteen years old, by her marriage becoming 
the mother of twelve children. 

Charles A. Spackman, after receiving the 
educational advantages of the Utah schools 
and familiarizing himself with the practical 
methods of the various occupations con- 
ducted under his father's supervision, came to 
Idaho in 1895 to commence life on his own re- 
sponsibilities, and here he engaged in stock- 
raising at his present location in Conant Val- 
ley, forty-five miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 



where his operations have steadily expanded 
and rapidly assumed important and extremely 
satisfactory proportions. In the community he 
stands high in social, political and religious cir- 
cles as a man of undoubted integrity, moral 
character, business ability and religious princi- 
ples, being an elder in the Mormon church. 

Mr. Spackman was joined in matrimony 
with Miss Phebe Rich, on December 21. 1892. 
she being a native of Morgan count v. Utah, 
and the daughter of Landon and Florence 
(Bratton) Rich, who are now citizens of Ban- 
nock county, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Spack- 
man are parents of eight children : Sarah. Ar- 
thur. Mary, Ethel, "Walter. Leon, deceased, 
Charles and Leland. The family is a prom- 
inent one and holds a high position in the 
social relations of the community. 

CHARLES J. SPONGBERG. 

Charles J. Spongberg. of Preston, for a 
long time one of the leading mechanics in this 
part of Idaho, busily occupied in building good 
houses for the people who settled it. was born 
in Sweden on April 1. 1826, the son of Andrew 
and Adelina (Fossman) Spongberg, also na- 
tives of Sweden, where the father was a con- 
tractor and builder, remaining there and con- 
ducting that business until his death. Their 
son, Charles, was reared and educated in It's 
native land, and after leaving- school, learned 
the trade of a blacksmith, and also worked 
with his father at carpenter work and building, 
the first, however, being his main reliance for 
an occupation through life. In 1856 he be- 
came a convert to Mormonism. and in the fol- 
lowing year he came to the United States with 
the view of making this country his permanent 
home. 

Charles J. Spongberg remained in Iowa, 
working at his trade and for railroads until 
1850. then came to Utah and was employed at 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



415 



Salt Lake City and Ogden until the fall of 
i860, when he settled at Richmond, in the 
Cache Valley, where his wife's parents had 
settled in 1879. He was one of the pioneers of 
this section, and by his trade he aided in start- 
ing it toward development and a condition of 
prosperity. In 1861 he removed to Franklin, 
where he was also an early settler and one of 
the developing and organizing- forces of an en-' 
tirely new country. He wrought at his trade 
of blacksmithing and also 1 did carpenter work, 
helping to build the first meetinghouse at 
Franklin and many of the early residences. He 
thoroughly understood both crafts and his serv- 
ices were in great demand in each. He was, 
moreover, resourceful in many ways, and could 
always be of service where help of any kind 
was needed. 

Mr. Spongberg had been taught self-reli- 
ance in his boyhood and youth, and the lessons 
had been emphasized by an active service in the 
army of Sweden, so that he was ready for any 
emergency, and never at the end of his re- 
sources. In 1875 he came to the neighborhood 
of Preston, this section being then opened for 
settlement, and located on the ranch which he 
now owns and occupies, two and one-half miles 
northeast of the present townsite. There were 
no other settlers here but those who came with 
him, for he was one of the first party of white 
men who ever pitched their tents in this sec- 
tion of the county for a permanent residence. 

Establishing his family on the farm, he re- 
turned to Franklin to work at his trade. There 
was great scarcity of money, and the conditions 
kept everyone hustling to make the necessary 
provision for life and labor. He continued to 
work at Franklin until 1883, meanwhile travel- 
ing back and forth and improving his land, 
building fences, and otherwise developing his 
estate of 320 acres, with the very capable help 
of his family. In 1883 he determined to de- 
vote his entire time and energy to the work of 



the farm and his stock industry, and since then 
he has done so. In the early years of his efforts 
here he experienced many setbacks and disas- 
ters. Some of the first winters were very se- 
vere and shelter for his cattle was far from 
sufficient, and he lost large numbers, but he 
was not discouraged by these mishaps, and 
steadily persevered in his progress toward in- 
dependence and established comfort. After 
coming to the farm to live he occasionally 
worked at the forge to oblige his neighbors, 
and once in a while took a hand in the erection 
of a building, but in the main he devoted him- 
self to his farm and stock interests. 

At Fairville, Iowa, on November 8, 1858, 
Mr. Spongberg was united in marriage with 
Miss Jacobina Funk, a native of Denmark. 
They have had seven children, six of whom are 
living, Anna, wife of Henry Hade; Christiana, 
wife of Flyrum Neilson ; Louisa, wife of Soren 
J. Peterson ; Charles J. ; Matilda and Thomas, 
Matilda and Thomas still members of the pa- 
rental home. Another daughter named Re- 
gina, who was unusually bright and promising, 
died on June 1, 1879, at the age of fifteen 
years and four months. The married sons and 
daughters have established their homes near 
that of their parents and brighten the lives of 
these good people with pleasant companionship 
and filial attention; and so the evening of life 
has settled on them softly, and is filled with 
peace and comfort after long and arduous la- 
bors, which have been highly appreciated, as 
shown by the universal respect and esteem 
which they so richly enjoy. 

GEORGE SPRACHER. 

This industrious pioneer settler has shown 
by his earnest endeavors and persistent in- 
dustry what the possibilities of the Snake 
River Valley of Idaho permit a man to ac- 
complish here in comparatively a few years'' 



416 



PROGRESSIVE MEX OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



devotion to the task of developing a home. 
Mr. Spracher was born in Tazewell county. 
Va., on February 25, 1862. a son of John and 
Martha (Herringer) Spracher, also natives of 
Virginia, the father moving from the old 
homestead to Utah in 1879. locating in the 
near vicinity of Ogden and engaging in a 
prosperous dairying business which he still 
conducts, the mother having departed this 
life at the age of forty-eight years, in Decem- 
ber, 1883. Early becoming the master of 
his own time, George Spracher was diligently 
occupied in various occupations until 1884, 
when, in association with his brother James, 
he came to La Belle and took up a ranch of 
160 acres, where the} 7 have since been engaged 
in general farming, at first of the crude pio- 
neer order, but now a systematic and profitable 
cultivation of the well-watered soil. 

During the first years of the residence 
here Mr. Spracher passed some months of 
each year in the mining camps of Montana to 
earn the money to support the family for the 
rest of the year. Mills were a long way off. 
so that, when a little grain had been raised, 
the settlers joined together and made the trip, 
fording the river at a time when the water was 
low, otherwise thev could not have crossed. 
From the incipiency of the La Belle Irriga- 
tion Canal Co., Mr. Spracher has been actively 
connected with it as a shareholder and worker, 
being one of the directors for two terms. The 
next summer after his arrival he brought in 
a sweep-power threshing machine, and from 
that time he has conducted a threshing outfit 
everv season, having recentlv purchased a 
steam thresher, while, as a further evidence of 
the prosperity which has followed his diligent 
labors, we will state that on the north line of 
his homestead he has just completed and oc- 
cupied an attractive residence of modern 
architecture and equipment. 

Solidly Democratic in political principle's. 



he was elected justice of the peace in 1894. 
and by successive elections is still the incum- 
bent of the office ; he has also been for two 
terms a sergeant-at-arms of the Idaho Legis- 
lature. He assisted in building the first 
schoolhouse of La Belle, laying the corner- 
stone thereof. As the house of Mr. Spracher 
was the only one that for some time hail a 
wooden floor, it was the gathering place of all 
the social and pleasure parties of the neigh- 
borhood, who came hither to "trip the light, 
fantastic toe" and enjoy the cordial hospital- 
ity of the owners of the home. 

At Eden, Utah, on November 7. 1885, 
Mr. Spracher and Miss Maggie Fisher were 
pronounced man and wife. She was born at 
Ogden. Utah, on September 2j. 1864. a 
daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Buerton) 
Fisher, natives of England, whence they emi- 
grated in i860, locating in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
where the father followed his trade of stone- 
cutting for three years, thereafter removing 
to Ogden. where he was connected with 
freighting operations for the long period of 
twenty-five years, after which he was occupied 
with farming. His death occurred in 1894. 
at the age of sixty-three years. The mother 
is still maintaining her residence at Ogden. 
having passed her seventy-third birthday. 
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Spracher are 
Martha E.. born June 10. t888; John Robert. 
one of twin children born March 22. 1893. 
the other, unnamed, dying at birth : Walter 
James, born March 13, 1897: Cara died at 
birth. Januarv 20. 1899. 

JOHN H. SQUIRES. 

A devoted member of the Church of the 
Latter Day Saints, and the son of parents who 

suffered infinite hardships and underwent 
many privations as a result of their devotion 
to their faith, now being both the popular bar- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



417 



ber and newsdealer of Rexford, Fremont 
county. Idaho, John H. Squires was born in 
Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 14, 1869, the 
son of John F. and Alice P. (Maiben) Squires, 
natives of England, who came to Utah in 1853, 
accompanying one of the expeditions that 
came by water to New Orleans, thence up the 
Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa, from 
which place the mother of Mr. Squires walked 
all- 'of the long, wearisome way to Salt Lake 
City, an undertaking which in these degenerate 
days would cause the heart of the strongest 
man to quail, and here the parents were mar- 
ried and made their home until 1876, when 
the family moved to Logan, Utah, and the 
father was the pioneer barber of that city, 
where he is still residing and in business, being 
fifty-six years of age, and the mother fifty-five 
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Squires was 
the pioneer barber of Salt Lake City, and had 
the distinction of regularly attending to the 
tonsorial wants of Brigham Young. The father 
at one time became bondsman for a county as- 
sessor and collector, who absconded with all 
the money he could carry off, causing Mr. 
Squires to sacrifice his shop and what funds his 
industry had laid by to pay the bonds. 

Mr. Squires was the eldest of twelve chil- 
dren, and from the age of ten years until he 
■ was twenty-three he Was diligent in attend- 
ance and labors in his father's shop, under his 
effective superintendence and instruction be- 
coming well versed in all that appertains to "a 
knight of the razor and shears," thereafter at- 
tending the State Agricultural College, at Lo- 
gan, Utah, for one year, and then engaging in 
pedagogic labors for a time, until he was called 
on mission work to Germany, in which he was 
effectively laboring for two and one-half years, 
thereafter returning to Logan, where he re- 
sumed teaching, being in successful education- 
al labors here for six full school years, then 



coming to Rexburg and establishing here not 
only a barber shop, but also the pioneer news- 
stand of the inchoate city, being greatly pros- 
pered in his enterprises from the first. 

At the present writing he has occupied his 
new building, which he has built to satisfy the 
present and rapidly increasing demands of his 
business, it being divided into two rooms, one 
occupied by an up-to-date barbershop, the 
other he has tastily fitted up as a news stand 
. and novelty store. There seems to be no doubt 
that under these new and favorable circum- 
stances the prosperity of the past will be more 
than excelled, as Mr. Squires possesses the 
requisite elements of popularity, good taste, 
and a shrewd financial ability, being also aided 
by his highly capable wife, who is an important 
factor in their already assured success. In pol- 
itics Mr. Squires is known as a pronounced 
Republican, and, as the United States census 
enumerator, he gathered the statistics of the 
Federal census of 1900. In the Mormon 
church he has ever been active. He was the 
president of the Cache county, Utah, religion 
class previous to his removal to Fremont 
county, and is now one of the presidents of the 
eighty-fourth quorum of the Seventies. 

On March 30; 1892, Mr. Squires and Miss 
Elizabeth Evans were wedded. She is a 
daughter of Morgan and Catharine (Jones) 
Evans, natives of Wales, who crossed the 
plains with ox teams in 1854, locating at Salt 
Lake City, where the father assisted as a ma- 
son in the construction of the temple, thence 
in 1859, removing to Logan, where for fifteen 
years he was employed as an engineer on the 
Union Pacific Railroad, then engaging in agri- 
culture, to which he has since added a black- 
smith shop, where he "passes his time away.'' 
He has a productive farm of seventy-five acres, 
and the family home is in a pleasant portion of 
Logan. 



4 iS 



PROGRESSI]' E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



C. D. STAFFORD, M. D. 

Although yet in the early prime of life. 
Doctor Stafford has proved a faithful exem- 
plar of the healing art. and has not only 
earned the reward of his efforts in a temporal 
wav, but has demonstrated that he is worthy 
to exercise the important vocation of his call- 
ing through his ability, his abiding sympathy 
and his earnest zeal in behalf of his fellow 
men. His understanding of the science of 
medicine is broad and comprehensive, and 
the profession and public alike accord him an 
honored place among medical practitioners, 
although his residence in Pocatello has been 
of very brief duration, and his energies and 
attention are attracted to other fields of en- 
deavor than professional life. 

Doctor Stafford was born on February 2, 
1872, at Auburn, Ind.. a son of James K. 
and Margaret (Duncan) Stafford, natives re- 
spectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the 
father long conducting a large business in the 
sale of agricultural implements, and a man 
whose opinions and policies were highly es- 
teemed in the community of his residence. 
The Stafford family was originally of English 
origin, but the immediate paternal ancestors 
have been residents of Pennsylvania. Doctor 
Stafford, in the public schools of St. Joseph, 
Ind., laid the foundation of the literary edu- 
cation he acquired, graduating with high 
standing from the high school at that place, 
then matriculating at the celebrated Taylor 
University of Indiana, where he was gradu- 
ated from the medical department with the 
class of 1897, having the distinction of being 
the youngest graduate from any medical col- 
lege in the United States, thereafter being em- 
ployed as a physician in the hospital at Fort 
Wayne for a time, and then being placed in 
charge of a sanitarium at Warsaw, shortly 
after coming to Diamondville, W'vo., to be- 



come the physician and surgeon of the Dia- 
mond Coal and Coke Co., holding this posi- 
tion successfully for two years, then estab- 
lishing himself in medical practice at Fort 
Bridger. where he rapidly attained a large 
practice, which he sold in 1892 and came to 
Pocatello. here he has devoted himself to his 
valuable mining interests. He is the vice- 
president of the Battle Rock Mining and Mill- 
ing Co., which is developing some fine propo- 
sitions, and he is also the secretary of the Great 
Western Mining. Milling- and Smelting Co. 
of Pocatello. which has a group of eight 
claims, situated five miles southeast of Poca- 
tello. upon which they have placed quite an 
amount of development work, including .a 
tunnel which they have driven in to the ore 
body, running very high in both copper and 
gold, the mineral-bearing ledge being about 
fifteen feet in thickness. Practical mining 
men and operators consider this one of the best 
mining propositions in this section of the 
country, and the company expects at a very 
early date to install a plant of the latest and 
most improved machinery and place the mine 
on the list of dividend-paying properties ; in 
this connection Doctor Stafford is in associa- 
tion with some of the ablest financiers. 

A. J. STANGER. 

Among the people of this section of the 
country who have conducted their business 
operations in such a manner as to most effect • 
ively use their great natural advantages, and 
who have won great prosperity from his con- 
flection with the sheep industry. A. J. Stanger 
of Iona, Bingham county, Idaho, well deserves 
more than a mere mention in this connection. 
He was born on April 4. 1859. near Payson, 
Utah, being a son of George and Man- ( Elk- 
ington) Stanger, his father, a native of Eng- 
land, coming to the United States as a young 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



419 



man, in 1854, crossing the plains with one of 
the early Mormon ox-team battalions, there- 
after establishing - his permanent home in 
Weber county, Utah, where he engaged in ag- 
riculture and stockraising for a most prosper- 
ous succession of years, and where he still re- 
sides, receiving the esteem and confidence of 
the whole community. 

A Democrat in political belief, George 
Stanger has been very prominent politically 
and socially, and being a member of the Mor- 
mon church, his religious qualifications have 
placed him for quite a term of years in the 
office of the bishop's counsellor. His father, 
James Stanger, came to the United States 
from his native land, England, at the advanced 
age of eighty years, and passed the remainder 
of his life in Utah. He was a son of George 
Stanger, who was for many years a carpenter 
in England, and who descended from a long- 
established family of that kingdom. The 
mother of Mr. Stanger come with her parents 
from England to Utah, where they settled in 
Weber county, where, after an honored and 
useful life, her father, John Elkington, passed 
to the other life. His wife, whose name was 
Elizabeth (Hensley) Elkington, also died in 
that county. 

Alfred J. Stanger attained manhood with a 
strong physique and a clear and active mind. 
Possessing unbounded energy and courage, at 
the age of nineteen years he established himself 
as a farmer in Hooper, Weber county, Utah, 
and successfully conducted husbandry there for 
five years, thence removing to the Snake River 
country of Idaho, where he combined sheep- 
raising operations with general farming, locat- 
ing his home and center of business activities 
in Bingham county, where, at Iona, he took up 
a pre-emption claim of 160 acres. A few years 
later he devoted himself almost entirely to 
sheep, his business in this line growing rapidly 
and cumulatively, and to such an extent as to 



cause him to give his entire personal super- 
vision to his stock interests. He is the presi- 
dent and general manager of the Iona Sheep 
Co., at Iona, which is running 20,000 head of 
sheep. He is also extensively known among 
the commercial and business men of the state, 
being one of the directors of the Iona Mercan- 
tile Co., and the efficient treasurer of that or- 
ganization. 

A steadfast adherent of the Mormon 
church, Mr. Stanger has taken a prominent 
position in connection with the affairs and the 
development of its interests and membership, 
holding also for a number of years the office of 
second counsellor to the bishop, thereafter 
being called to be the second counsellor to the 
stake president. 

Mr. Stanger married, on March 20, 1875, 
with Miss Elizabeth Ritchie, a native of Utah, 
and a daughter of James Ritchie, a native of 
Scotland, who left his native land when a boy, 
accompanying the family migration to Utah. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stanger have had ten children, 
namely : Mary, Elizabeth, Delbert, Alfred, 
Hannah, George, Sarah, Frank, now living, 
while James, Ella and Ernest are deceased. 

E. H. STAUFFER. 

Coming to Idaho and to Bingham county 
in 1 88 1, and being closely identified with its 
progress and development, and manifesting in 
many ways the traits of character which have 
made the frontier man of America a most pic- 
turesque, interesting and energetic type of our 
cosmopolitan citizenship, Mr. E. H. Stauffer, of 
this review, is sufficiently typical of this class, 
and enjoys the distinction of being worthy of 
the highest confidence and esteem of all who 
know him, also holding with distinctive abil- 
ity the position of postmaster of Poplar post- 
office from its erection in 1894 down to the 
present time. He was born on September 30, 



4-° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1847, in Pennsylvania, a son of Abraham and 
Mary (Hawksworth) Stauffer. his parents also 
being natives of Pennsylvania, where they 
passed their entire lives as diligent farmers 
and members of the Baptist church, the 
father dying in 1869, at the age of fifty-three 
years, and the mother long surviving him, 
her death occurring at the age of eighty-four. 
in 1901, being the mother of six children. 

Mr. Stauffer passed his early days on the 
paternal farmstead in Pennsylvania, where he 
remained until the age of seventeen years, 
when he devoted himself to the plastering 
trade, at which he labored in various parts of 
his native state for nine consecutive years, 
then emigrating to Kansas, where in Decatur 
county he was connected with agricultural 
operations for five years, until 1881, when 
dates his advent in the state of Idaho. Here 
he located on a homestead of 160 acres, 
twenty-two miles northeast of Idaho Falls, 
and eng-aged in general farming and in stock- 
raising enterprises. His place being centrally 
located for the accommodation of the public, he 
has made his home a place of entertainment 
and genial hospitality is here extended to all 
who pull the traditional latch-string. A man 
of geniality, business ability and public spirit. 
Mr. Stauffer has many friends and possesses 
much influence, being" considered one of the 
leading representatives of his class in his sec- 
tion of the state, while in political relations 
he is identified and prominently connected 
with the local operations and campaigns of 
the Democratic political party. 

On May 4, 1872, Miss Katie Jones, who 
was born on April 16, 1850, in Pennsylvania, a 
daughter of John and Sarah (Mattice) Jones, 
became the wife of Mr. Stauffer. She is a 
woman whose practical ability and amiable 
disposition have made her a fitting helpmeet 
to her husband in his various spheres of activ- 
ity, she well maintaining the family reputation 



for hospitable entertainment. Her grand- 
father, Samuel Jones, was a representative 
citizen of his native county in Pennsylvania, 
and her father also passed his life in that 
state, employed as a stone-mason and a 
farmer, dying on September 4, 1892, at the 
age of sixty-four years, long surviving his 
wife, who died on February 22, 1872, at the 
age of fifty-three, being the mother of one 
child. Mr. and Mrs. Stauffer have five chil- 
dren : Theodore, born February 26, 1873; An~ 
drew, April 2. 1877; Man-, deceased, May 
20. 1881; Kate, June 12, 1884, and Edna. 
October 18, 1889. 

It is eminently fitting to here pay a trib- 
ute to Mr. Stauffer's private record, which 
will be readily indorsed by all who have come 
in touch with him in business or socially. He 
is one of the most genial and companiable of 
men, courteous alike to rich and poor, meet- 
ing all with a truly democratic spirit. As a 
citizen he is popular with all classes and is an 
upright and broad-minded man who aims to 
do his whole duty and make his life conform 
to the right as he sees and understands the 
right. 

JOHN H. STINGER. 

Not every one of the earlv pioneers of the 
intermountain section of the Great West has 
experienced so many changes or endured so 
many privations as has the worthy gentleman 
of McCatnmon, Idaho, whose name heads this 
article, and his connection with various enter- 
prises of frontier and pioneer life has been such 
that it is with pleasure that we here make rec- 
ord of his active and eventful career as a con- 
stituent part of the history of this portion of 
the country. John H. Stinger was born in 
Zanesville, Ohio, on April 23. 1839, a son of 
Adam and Mary (Rhodes) Stinger, who some 
years before the birth of their son John emi- 
grated from their native land of Germany to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



421 



Peoria, 111., soon after removing to Zanesville, 
Ohio, from there, in 1849, to Missouri, they 
being farmers by occupation, and the death of 
the father occurring in Peoria, 111., and that of 
the mother also occurred in Illinois. 

Mr. Stinger acquired an excellent practical 
education in Ohio, he also becoming thorough- 
ly versed in all departments of the baker's 
tcade, at which employment he was profitably 
engaged for many years, in 1861 coming west 
to Salt Lake City and building, at Ogden, the 
first baker's oven of the city. Thereafter he 
followed the construction of the Utah Northern 
Railway with a baker's wagon until he came to 
Oneida, Idaho, having a prosperous trade. 
From Oneida he went to Spring Hill, now 
called Lima, Mont., and for eighteen months 
he was the popular manager of the railroad 
dining hall at that station. 

Having a keen eye to* the possibilities of 
development of the different sections of the 
country with which he became acquainted 
determined that P'ocatello, Idaho, possessed 
equal chances of a rapid growth with any other 
young town, and removing thither, in 1888, he 
became one of the pioneers of Bannock county 
and the first proprietor of a bakery in the in- 
choate city. From this time until 1901, with 
.the exception of five years passed in the gro- 
cery business in Salt Lake City, Mr. Stinger 
was an active and well-known citizen of Poca- 
tello, conducting a profitable and steadily in- 
creasing baking business, and being connected 
with public matters of a local nature, giving 
acceptable service as a justice of the peace for a 
term of years and until he resigned the office 
on his removal from the city, where he is yet 
interested as the owner of valuable real-estate. 
In 1 901, Mr. Stinger made his home at Mc- 
Cammon, establishing there a general merchan- 
dising business, which he conducted to the ac- 
ceptance of the public, and also holding office 
as a justice of the peace. From childhood he 



has been a consistent member of the Mormon 
church, his devotion to its interests being rec- 
ognized by his appointment as a teacher of his 
ward. 

On October 1, 1859, Mr. Stinger married 
with Miss Elizabeth Hollist, a lady of great 
ability and a leader in church work, who was 
born on February 14, 1842, a daughter of 
Henry and Elizabeth (Chandler) Hollist, who 
emigrated from their native England to Amer- 
ica, first making their home in Boston, Mass., 
and in 1861 pursuing their westward journey 
to Farmington, Utah, where the mother died on 
December 12, 1864, and the father on May 
12, 1870. Mr. Hollist was a skilled carpenter, 
excelling in mechanical work, and was very 
prominent in connection with the activities of 
the Mormon church, both himself and wife 
standing high in the esteem of the people. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stinger have had thirteen 
children, of whom ten are living: John Wil- 
liam, born July 13, i860; Jane E., born Au- 
gust 14, 1862, died October 29, 1863 ; 
Henry H, born May 12, 1864; Mary 
D., born February 20, 1866; Mindwell 
F., born January 4, 1868, died in in- 
fancy; Rosanna, born December 21, 1868, 
died February 14, 1871^ Lillie A., born Julv 
22. 1871 ; Harriet A., born June 20, 1873; 
Florence, born October 4, 1875 ; Alice E., born 
October 19, 1877; Rhoda P., born April 19, 
1879; Ada E. M., born May 25, 1881; Fanny 
G., born June II, 1883. Thirty-six grand- 
children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Stinger, 
thirty-one are now living and they worthily 
stand high in honor. 

This record has not yet done full justice to 
Mr. Stinger, and we continue it by saying that 
in the early days he participated in many 
skirmishes and fights with hostile Indians, and 
for a long period of time he worked and slept 
with his loaded gun within reach. Soon after 
their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Stinger were sent 



42- 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



to settle in the new colony of Toquerville, 
Utah, and during their residence there they 
suffered many privations, living as they did for 
weeks with nothing but melons, wild plants and 
herbs for food, the necessities of life command- 
ing so high a price as to render them unattain- 
able by the pioneers, flour reaching a price of 
$25 for 100 pounds, sugar $1.00 a pound, and 
other articles bearing a close relation to these 
figures. 

While in southern Utah. Mr. Stinger en- 
gaged in the cultivation of cotton, and in 1864 
the settlement sent several carloads of this prod- 
uct to the East. The cotton was picked by 
hand, as there was not a cotton-gin in Utah, 
and from a portion of the crop Mrs. Stinger 
carded and spun sufficient yarn to weave it into 
clothing for the family. In 1866 the family 
home was transferred to American Fork, 
where for two and one-half years Mr. Stinger 
carried on both freighting and farming, thence 
removing to Pocatello, as before stated. 

JOHN CROFTS. 

The Heroes of today are those who have 
aided in transforming the once desert wilder- 
ness into fruitful fields', and have made the 
desert plains to "blossom like the rose," and, 
conspicuous among their number in this sec- 
tion of the state of Idaho, we must mention 
John Crofts, now a farmer near Basalt, Idaho, 
who is in many mays identified with the prog- 
ress and the moral advancement of the com- 
munity which is fortunate in numbering him 
among its intelligent and representative 
citizens. He was born on March 24, 1832. in 
North Wales, as a son of Joseph and Sarah 
(Wainwright) Crofts, who died in their native 
land, descendants of families long connected 
with and residents of Wales. 

Mr. Crofts attained manhood in Wales, 
where he received his education and engaged 



in various activities until occurred his emi- 
gration to this country in 1856. His first 
home in America was made in Luzerne 
county, Pennsylvania, he thereafter moving to 
Westmoreland county, thence to Madison 
county, Illinois, in 1857, residing in that state 
and in Missouri until June 2. 1862, when he 
accompanied a Morman company which 
crossed the plains with ox teams to Salt Lake 
City, Utah, where he arrived on October 10. 
1862. Soon after his arrival he engaged in 
farming in Morgan county, from there going 
to Summit county, thence to Orderville and 
to Cedar City, and coming to Bingham 
county, Idaho, in 1887. where he permanently 
located himself on a rich homestead, which he 
has developed into a valuable home. 

Of what he has accomplished through his 
tireless energy and steady application he lias 
good reason to be proud, success coining to 
him as the reward of his far-reaching sagacity, 
persistent energy and untiring industry. He 
is now numbered among the progressive men 
of his portion of the state ; but. plain and 
unostentatious, he ever strives to be diligently 
and industriously employed in the industry of 
which he has attained a competency: Stand- 
ing high in the esteem of the Mormon church, 
he is holding at present the office of high 
priest. 

On January 1, 1854, at Eccles church, 
England, were celebrated the marriage rites 
uniting Mr. Crofts with Miss Ellen Rothwell, 
a native of England and a daughter of Samuel 
and Mary (Fletcher) Rothwell, who was born 
in England on December 14, 1837. The 
father of Mrs. Crofts died in Salt Lake City 
in 1880, the mother having passed away in 
Illinois in 1873. The paternal grandparents 
of his wife. Thomas and Ann (Johnson) Roth- 
well. were natives of Pendlebur. Lancashire. 
England, where their ancestors had resided 
for more than a century. The family of Mr. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



425 



and Mrs. Crofts consists of sixteen children, 
their own children being Edward, born April 
21. 1855; Emma J., May 28, 1857. at Cone- 
maugh, Pa. ; Joseph W., September 16, 1859, 
at Richmond, Mo. ; John, February 2, 1862, 
at Madison, 111.; Samuel R., deceased, June 
23, 1864; Ephraim, November 2, 1866; James 
H., October 12, 1869; Hiram T., January 28, 
1871; Charles W., April 8, 1873; Parley O., 
May 8, 1875 (Samuel R. and all the others 
younger heretofore mentioned having birth at 
Portville, Utah,) ; Richard, born February 22. 
1878; Albert A. and Alfred E., twins, were 
born at Orderville, Utah, on July 10, 1879, 
as were Sarah M. E., on August 12, 1880, 
and Wilford M., on September 18, 1882. 
They have two adopted children, Robert S., 
born on September 16, 1883, and Catherine A., 
born January 9, 1882, both of whom were 
born at Orderville. 

In January, 1880, Mr. Crofts married with 
Elizabeth McConnell, of Orderville, Utah, 
who was the mother of the adopted children 
whose names are previously given. She died 



on October 31, il 



A grandson of Mr. 



Crofts, Harvey E., born April 9, 1897, was 
sealed to Mr. and Mrs. Crofts. Harvey E. 
has a sister, Lillie M., born on October 2, 
1899. The circle of descendants also contains 
Rosanna, born in January, 1880, and Mar- 
garet, born on March 17, 1882. 

It is pleasant to be able to record that, 
after a life of unintermitting industry and 
usefulness, Mr. Crofts is passing the evening 
of his days secure in the esteem of his as- 
sociates, standing high as one of the repre- 
sentative men of the country of his adoption. 

FRANK STORER. 

There is perhaps no more noteworthy ex- 
ample of what industry, economy, thrift and 
persevering energy will accomplish in the fer- 



tile Upper Valley of the- Snake River of Idaho 
than is presented in the result of the de- 
terminate endeavors of Frank Storer, who is 
now one of the prosperous farmers of the 
county, his productive, well-watered and well- 
irrigated estate of 160 acres of valuable land 
being less than two< miles southeast of Rigby, 
the thriving and rapidly growing town which 
is his postoffice address. 

Frank Storer was born on November 26, 
1864, at Mansfield, County Nottingham, Eng- 
land, a son of Dennis and Sarah (Douglas) 
Storer, the father being a skilled operator in a 
stocking factory, on account of his excellent 
workmanship being transferred to Philadel- 
phia, Pa., when the first stocking machinery 
was brought to this country and erected in 
that city, and with its operations he was con- 
nected until his death. Subsequent to that 
sad event the mother brought the family to 
Ogden county, Utah, where was her residence 
until her death in 1882. 

The first independent labor . that Mr. 
Storer engaged in was firing a stationary en- 
gine at Alma, Wyo., being thus employed for 
six years. Thereafter he went to Anaconda, 
Mont., and was employed in the smelter un- 
til 1885, when the thought of wedded life and 
the establishment of a home of his own 
brought him to the section of the Snake River 
Valley where he now resides, he there locating 
on a homestead, and, after his marriage on 
June 16, 1885, to Miss Lulu M. Parks, the 
young couple devoted themselves with dili- 
gence to> the work they had in hand of the re- 
clamation of the original desert and its trans- 
formation into fruitful fields and an attractive 
home. 

It was not a promising outlook. It took 
"nerve" to undertake it, for the life of the 
early' settlers of the valley was by no means 
one of ease, hardships and deprivations con- 
fronting even the wealthiest. It took the last 



426 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



dollar of Mr. Storer's money to pay the filing- 
fee for his place, and his only apparent means 
of furnishing- a livelihood was to return to 
Anaconda and carefully husband the wages 
received for work in the smelter, and this he 
did for four successive winter seasons, during 
the summer laboring on his land, cutting sage- 
brush, plowing, planting and cultivating and 
digging on the canal's and ditches to bring 
water to his property, his faithful wife being a 
most capable assistant in the work, both care- 
fully and frugally expending their little capi- 
tal until the land began to give a return for 
the work bestowed upon it and prosperity be- 
gan to smile upon them. 

By wise and discriminating management 
and methods, accompanied by an industry 
that never flagged, an energy that was tireless, 
an attractive and highly productive farm has 
been brought into being, with comfortable 
buildings and improvements, and every dol- 
lar of the indebtedness that in the early clays 
he was forced to incur has been paid to the 
uttermost, and at this writing he owes not any 
man. All honor to the heroic men who thus 
triumph over circumstances, for Mr. Storer is 
but a type of numbers who have here wrought 
out from the stern conditions of nature in this 
desert of sagebrush, a home, prosperity and 
wealth. He has aided in building every ca- 
nal put in to supply the desert wastes with wa- 
ter, and of the South Rigby Canal Co., which 
brings the fluid to his farm, he is president. 

Mrs. Storer was born near Morganton, N. 
C, on February 22, 1866, a daughter of Wil- 
liam and Eliza (Copeney) Parks, natives of 
North Carolina, and to these industrious and 
worthy people of whom we are writing have 
come four children : William, born on March 
22, 1886; Lillie A., born September 26, 1888, 
died May 13, 1889; Frank, born April 1. 
1890, died November 12, 1890; Pearl, born 
August 24, 1894. 



DAVID STOWELL. 

The unbiased historian must award the 
larger amount of credit to be given for the 
building up of the civilization and the progress 
of the great intermountain region of America 
to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints, for, from the time when, in 1847, 
its advance guard crossed the long route of the 
plains to Utah, it has steadily drawn to this 
region a deeply religious people, from nearlv 
even' civilized country of the globe, to take 
part in its work of development as pioneers to 
here make permanent homes and rear children 
and to see their grandchildren occupy the land, 
and the heroic band has never faltered. Amid 
discouragements and deep privations they have 
courageously struggled on, "sustained by an 
unfaltering faith," until now the whole land is 
smiling under the sun of prosperity and plenty. 
David Stowell, of this review, comes of parent- 
age who were allied with the Mormon church, 
suffered with its persecutions in Missouri and 
in Illinois, and under the leadership of Brig- 
ham Young, after wintering at Winter Quar- 
ters, followed the as yet lightly trodden trail 
across the plains in 1848, making their home at 
first at Salt Lake City, but very soon becoming 
pioneer settlers of the now prosperous city of 
Ogden. 

Mr. Stowell was born at Ogden. Utah, on 
October 20, 1861, a son of William R. R. and 
Sophronia (Kelley) Stowell. his parents being 
natives of Ontario county, N. Y., where they 
were married and resided until 1834, when 
they migrated to Missouri, thereafter identify- 
ing themselves with the church as heretofore 
stated. The father became one of the earliest 
landowners at Ogden, and there conducted 
farming for many years, and he was also ar- 
rayed as a soldier of Utah to resist General 
Johnston's advance, by whose forces he was 
taken prisoner, a fuller account of this capture 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



427 



being published in Bancroft's History of Utah. 
His death occurred at Chihuahua, Mexico, on 
May 29, 1 90 1, when he was seventy-nine years 
of age ; the mother, who has reared seven chil- 
dren, of whom David is the fourth in order of 
birth, is now residing at Franklin, Idaho, hav- 
ing attained the Scriptural age of three score 
and ten years. Devoting his services most 
heartily to the service of his parents until he 
was twenty years old, David Stowell then be- 
came a fireman on the Central Pacific Railroad 
for one year, when he worked for one season 
in a sawmill in the Ogden Valley, being in- 
capacitated, however, for some months for la- 
bor by a serious ax-wound on his leg, the next 
summer having employment in construction 
work on the Oregon Short Line Road, between 
Shoshone and Boise, then for two years en- 
gaging in farming at Ogden, immediately 
thereafter, in April, 1888, coming to Poole's 
Island, in the Snake River Valley, where he 
used his right of homestead on 160 acres of' 
land in township 4, on which he has since 
made his home and been engaged in the work 
of its clearing, development and culture, with 
the exception of a few months' labor in con- 
struction work on the Oregon Short Line, be- 
tween Opal and Kemmerer. He has been suc- 
cessful in all branches of husbandry except 
fruitraising, having expended betwieen two and 
three hundred dollars for nursery stock and 
now having only 150 trees, while the first box 
of apples produced by his orchard was har- 
vested in 1902. 

The first year Mr. Stowell was in Fremont _ 
county he was without money and could find 
no work, so he went to Utah in. August, labored 
there until November, then returned to' Idaho, 
completed his house, and, as he says "pulled 
through the winter," in the spring putting in a 
crop and securing a fine yield of grain, the 
commencement of prosperous days. In the 
giant work of irrigation he has taken an active 
part, assisting in the construction of all of the 



lateral canals of the Henry Canal system, and 
being one of the directors of the construction 
work of the Great Feeder Canal, and having 
more .or less to do with the building of all of 
the canals near his home, giving more time and 
attention to the West La Belle Canal than any 
other member of the company when it was 
known as the Campbell & Clifford ditch and, 
before its incorporation, serving as its water- 
master. He is now the president of the West 
La Belle Canal and director of the Little 
Feeder. 

In all public matters he manifests a gener- 
ous willingness to aid all things tending to pro- 
mote the general good, holding the office of 
school trustee one term, and is known as a 
working element in the ranks of the Republi- 
can political party, while he is an elder in the 
church of his parents' adoption, and was the 
assistant superintendent of the Sunday school 
of his ward for ten years, and its superintend- 
ent for three years, and, since the establishment 
of the Annis branch, he has held the offices of 
teacher and president of the Young Men's Mu- 
tual Improvement Association for three years. 
In February, 1904, he was made the superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school. 

On April 14, 1884, Mr. Stowell married 
with Miss Rutha A. Burch, born May 13, 
1862, daughter of James and Nancy L. (Stew- 
art) Burch, natives of Ohio, now residing at 
Ogden, the father being seventy years of age 
and the mother sixty-one. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Stowell's marriage have been born eight chil- 
dren: David W., born March 7, 1885, now a 
student of the Rexburg schools; Jessie A., 
born July 21, 1887; Gertrude, born April 17, 
1890; Verlia, born September 20, 1892; Edith 
L., born February 28, 1895, died when three 
months old ; Rutha B., born July 11, 1896, died 
when three years old ; Florence, born April 28, 
1899, fli ed m infancy; Ruby S., born Novem- 
ber 23, 1900, died when six weeks old; Martha 
Irene, bom July 26, 1903. 



43fc 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



DAVID C. STUART. 

The historian never tires of narrating the 
eventful lives of the men who were bold, dar- 
ing pioneers of any section of the country, 
but especially are they pleased to tell of the 
opening up of the countries of the Great West, 
where unnumbered difficulties, hardships and 
privations were matters of everyday life and 
unknown dangers, and perils from wild beasts 
and _ wilder Indians threatened the daring 
man on every side. In recording the eventful 
history of Mr. David C. Stuart, it is not only 
the successful pioneer labors that we have to 
record, but he was also one of the gallant 
defenders of the Confederacy in the great 
war of the states, on many a bloody battle- 
ground of the South, being one of the last to 
relinquish the fight and to acknowledge that 
the war was over, and that the contest waged 
so valiantly by Lee, Johnston, Forrest and so 
many distinguished leaders and so many 
soldiers, was at last a "lost cause." 

Mr. Stuart was born in Morgan county, 
Ala., on December 10. 1842. a son of 
David G. and Martha J. (Hearn) Stuart, na- 
tives respectively of Tennessee and of Vir- 
ginia, who after their marriage became set- 
tlers of Alabama, there continuing to reside 
until the early seventies, when they came to 
Dingle, Idaho, where the mother died in 
March, 1885, a °d the father on February 12, 
1903. 

Passing his youth after the manner of the 
lads of his place and period, upon the breaking 
out of the great conflict of 1861 Mr. Stuart 
enlisted at the age of nineteen years, becom- 
ing a member of Company D, Fourth Ala- 
bama Cavalry, C. S. A., serving under Gen- 
erals Forrest, Martin, Wheeler and Long- 
street, being in many fiercely fought and 
hotly contested battles and engagements, not- 
ablv among them being the battles of Nash- 



ville, Tenn., Parkers Crossroads and Atlanta. 
He served in all the campaigns in eastern and 
middle Tennessee (once passing thirty-one 
consecutive days in the saddle), was captured 
and held in prison from January 1, 1863, until 
April 3d, succeeding that date, when he was 
paroled. Thereafter he was a member of the 
last company of the entire Confederate forces 
to surrender, being then under the command 
of Gen. Joe Patterson. 

After peace was declared he was engaged 
in farming and in railroading for about three 
years, then crossed the plains, his ultimate 
destination being Idaho, where he arrived on 
July 12, 1872, and he has since resided at 
Wardboro, Bear Lake county, during the 
thirty years that have since passed developing 
one of the model ranches of the county, con- 
sisting of 240 acres of most excellently located 
land lying in the Dingle Valley, all under ir- 
rigation, highly improved and with an excel- 
lent residence of modern design and equip- 
ment, barns, sheds, corrals, etc., in sufficient 
number and arrangement to accommodate the 
needs and requirements of the large bands of 
horses, cattle and sheep which bear his brand 
and mark. 

In March, 1866, Mr. Stuart wedded Miss 
Partheney Garrison, a native of Alabama, 
who died on May 25. 1873. leaving two chil- 
dren, Ida, born March 26, t8o8. and David 
C, born May 25, 1873. On October 13, 1879, 
he formed another marriage with Mrs. Mary 
(Larsen) Smith, a native of Denmark, who 
accompanied her widowed mother to the 
United States and to Utah some months after 
her father's death in 1865. The mother re- 
sided in Utah until 1877. then removing to 
Dingle, she here resided until her death on 
July 15, 1897. Mrs. Stewart had one son, by 
her first marriage. Joseph F. Smith, born 
March 5, 1876. Seven other children have 
come to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart; 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



429 



Lewis F., born July 18, 1880; Grace, born 
May 8, 1882; Stella, born September 2, 1884; 
Roy, born December 6, 1886; Forrest, born 
February 6, 1890 ; Eugene, born February 19, 
1893, deceased ; Eulalie, born July 3, 1897. All 
of the living children are at the parental home, 
making a family attractive and genial, where 
the numerous friends of the family find a 
heart}'- welcome. 

Fraternally Mr. Stuart is a valued mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, while in public matters he has been an 
active and generous supporter and contribu- 
tor to all movements his judgment indicated 
were for the betterment of the community 
and state. He has held various public of- 
fices creditably and to the satisfaction of the 
people. 

JOHN U. STUCKI. 

Not only in the delineation of the lives and 
careers of the progressive men of the various 
localities of their residence, but also in the 
preservation of the lines of ancestry so far as 
it is attainable are compilations of this charac- 
ter found exceedingly valuable, inasmuch as a 
correct record is hereby established in perpetu- 
ity that in coming days by coming generations 
will be pronounced and acknowledged of great 
potential value, and it is with pleasure that we 
register, in association with the review of the 
gentleman whose name appears at the begin- 
ning of this paper, an ancestral lineage reach- 
ing back in the little republic of Switzerland for 
nearly three and one-half centuries. John U. 
Stucki was born on June 8, 1837, at Ober 
Neunforn, in Canton Thurgau, Switzerland, 
the son of Johannes Stucki, born July 15, 
1806, died December 5, 1886, and Elizabeth 
(Sauter) Stucki, born August 22, 1804, at 
Huttweilen, died March 16, 1849, both 
of Ober Neunforn ; the paternal grand- 
parents being Ulrich Stucki, born September 



13, 1779, died June 14, 1828, and Catharina 
(Wysmann) Stucki, born September 18, 1778, 
died September 5, 1839, both also of Ober 
Neunforn ; the paternal great-grandparents 
being Johannes Stucki, born April 13, 1740, at 
Ober Neunforn, died June 10. 1800, and Ur- 
sula (Moeckli) Stucki, born November 22, 
1750, at Unterschlatt ; the great-great-grand- 
parents being Johannes Stucki, born September 
26, 1 70 1, died November 23, 1752, and Els- 
beth (Randegger) Stucki, born 1705 ; the great- 
great-great-grandparents being Ulrich Stucki, 
born August 16, 1663, died February 19, 1721, 
and Barbara (Hoppeler) Stucki, died May 31, 
171 5; the great-great-great-great-grandparents 
being Hans Jakob Stucki, born February 5, 
1632, and Elsbeth (Sigg) Stucki; the great- 
great-great-great-great-grandparents being - Ul- 
rich Stucki, born March 1, 1607, died June 21, 
1670, and Elsbeth (Hagenbuch) Stucki, born 
about 16 10. (After the death of this mother 
of his children, Ulrich married with Elsbeth 
Wolfer, born '1612. ) The great-great-great- 
great-great-great-grandparents of John U. 
Stucki of this review were Mathias Stucki, 
born 1560, and Anna Stucki, and for his sec- 
ond wife Mathias wedded Elsi Schelkin. 

John U. Stucki, in the free atmosphere of 
his native land, acquired that diligent industry, 
honest integrity and mechanical skill which 
are in so noted a degree the distinguishing- 
characteristics of the Swiss people, commenc- 
ing the contests of life at the age of fourteen 
years by an apprenticeship to the trade of a 
merchant tailor. Not liking this occupation, 
he was engaged in it only four years, when, be- 
coming a convert to the doctrines of the Church 
of Latter Day Saints, as promulgated by faith- 
ful and devoted missionaries of that faith, he 
emigrated from Switzerland in 1859. coming 
direct to Salt Lake City, where he arrived in 
August, i860, thence removing to the new 
settlement in the Cache Valley, where he con- 



43° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ducted agricultural operations for eight years, 
being much of the time, however, employed in 
the interests of the church, thereafter conduct- 
ing successful merchandising at Providence, 
Cache Valley, for two years. 

At the termination of this time his serv- 
ices were again called for by his superiors in 
the church, and he came to Paris, Bear Lake 
county, Idaho, to take the position of tithing- 
clerk, in which capacity he is still most capably 
serving, pursuing also as a vocation the raising 
of cattle of superior breed and quality, and in 
which department of husbandry his success has 
been assured and cumulative. Since coming 
to Idaho, he has passed five highly productive 
years in Europe on mission work. In public 
matters Mr. Stucki has ever keenly viewed the 
political situation of the county from the stand- 
point of the Republican party, giving his time 
and endeavors to the accomplishment of its 
success in its various campaigns, and he has 
been honored by the people with responsible 
public offices, the duties pertaining to which 
he has intelligently, honestly and faithfully dis- 
charged, among them being justice of the 
peace, notary public, county auditor and county 
treasurer, while at the present writing, and for 
several years past, he has been the popular as- 
sistant postmaster of Paris. 

On the eve of his departure from 1 Europe, 
on August 19, 1859, Mr. Stucki entered into 
matrimonial relations with Miss Margaret 
Huber. a daughter of Heinrich and Atnna Ma- 
rie (Schneider) Huber, who has proved a most 
efficient and capable helpmeet to her husband 
in his prolific life of industry, and being the 
mother of a large family of children, of whom 
John H.. Caroline E. and Hyrum S. are de- 
ceased, and Charles T., Maria J., William B., 
Joseph S., Annie, Fritz (adopted), Margaret, 
Eilfrieda, Erastus and Ezra S. now survive. 
The family are highly cherished by a large ac- 
quaintance, and a host of friends are cordially 



entertained at the hospitable residence of Mr. 
Stucki, who is one of the men who occupy most 
worthily high positions in the esteem and re- 
gard of the community. 

D. D. SULLIVAN. 

In considering the composite individual- 
ities that have formed the advance guard of 
civilization in southeastern Idaho it is abso- 
lutely essential to make more than a mere men- 
tion of the energetic subject of this review, as 
he has taken a prominent and an active position 
in the development of the country, being one 
of its representative citizens and a leading 
stockman, conducting operations of great 
scope and importance in farming and stock- 
raising. 

Mr. Sullivan was born on January 21, 
1845, at Nashville, Brown county. Ind., a sun 
ot James T. and Annie ( YVeddell) Sullivan. 
who were natives respectively of Maine and 
Virginia. The father, an excellent mechanic, 
conducted wagon making in Indiana for many 
years after his marriage, dying in that state 
in 1885. The mother long survived him. her 
death occurring at Valiska, Iowa, in 1897. 
The paternal grandparents were pioneer resi- 
dents of Indiana, their deaths taking place at 
Bedford. The maternal grandfather, David 
D. Weddell, was a prominent clergyman of 
the Campbellite persuasion, who acquired a 
high reputation in Iowa and later in Oregon, 
to which state he moved in 1868, and, after a 
long life of painstaking industry, his esti- 
mable wife was called from earth at Eugene. 
Ore., in 1882, the husband surviving her loss 
but three short years. 

D. D. Sullivan was yet conning bis school 
books at the age of sixteen when the call to 
arms resounded over the land. and. fired by 
patriotism, be left his studies to enlist in the 
Union armv. becomingf a member of Com- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



43i 



pany E, First Missouri Cavalry, enlisting 
therein on April 21, 1862. He saw military 
life in both the West and East, fighting under 
General Prentiss at Kirksville, Mo., under 
General Brown at Marshall and under Gen- 
eral Pleasanton at Mine Creek, being hon- 
orably discharged, after faithful services, at 
Warrensburg, Mo., on April 21, 1865. 

Returning to Fort Leavenworth, Kans., in 
1865, he there began his long connection with 
Western life by connecting himself with a 
freighting outfit, with which he crossed the 
plains to Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City, 
in December, 1865, starting for California, 
but leaving the train at Payson, Utah, de- 
parting thence the next spring for Montana, 
at Last Chance Gulch, now Helena, engag- 
ing in logging operations for the supply of the 
gold mines of that section. In 1867 he went 
to Utah, and from that time until 1881 he was 
in many places and conducting various occu- 
pations, rcmch of the time, however, being oc- 
cupied with successful prospecting and mining 
operations in Nevada. In 1875 he came to 
Bannock, then Oneida county, Idaho, and 
from that year he has been a forceful factor in 
the general and local affairs of the section. 

He first purchased a ranch, on which he re- 
sided twelve years, then, selling it, he removed 
to his present location in 1893. Here he has 
480 acres of excellent grazing land, which, 
with the 160 acres he owns four miles north- 
west of the home ranch, gives him a fine es- 
tate, a center of a large and cumulative stock- 
raising business, which has been so con- 
ducted as to constitute him one of the repre- 
sentative cattlemen of all the surrounding re- 
gion, his undertakings being highly prospered 
and profitable, while in the community his 
sterling qualities and business capabilities 
cause him to be considered one of the leaders 
of public opinion. Never caring for or seek- 
ing office, he did accept the commission of 



postmaster of Grace postoffice, holding the 
office for nine years, and he has performed 
highly valuable service in connection with the 
public schools. On January 21, 1868, Mr. 
Sullivan married with Miss Caroline Calkins, 
bom on January 7, 185 1, in Iowa, a daughter 
of Israel and Lavinia (Wheeler) Calkins, na- 
tives of New York. Mrs. Sullivan was brought 
by her parents to Utah in 1852, where they 
permanently located at Payson until the 
death of the father in 1863, the mother later 
removing to Idaho, where she died at Soda 
Springs in 1882. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan have come 
thirteen children, of whom ten are now liv- 
ing, namely: Julia A., born November 19, 
1869; Indamora, born March 20, 1874; Helen 
A., born February 8, 1877; Minnie M., born 
December 18, 1878; David D., born Sep- 
tember 6, 1880; Mary E., born September 12, 
1882; Caroline, born July 4, 1886; Walter S.. 
born February 24, 1888; Irene, born April 
21, 1891 ; Gladys, born August 17, 1893. 

EDWARD W. SWANN. 

Edward W. Swann, one of the leading 
ranchers and stockmen of Oneida county, Ida- 
ho, is the product of the intermountain region, 
where his useful labor has aided in developing 
and fructifying the section in which he lives, 
being strong in the faith of the Latter Day 
Saints, to whose progress and prosperity he has. 
also essentially contributed by his devoted serv- 
ices and commendable zeal, especially in Sun- 
day-school work, to which he has given many 
years of close and helpful attention, and being 
at the time of this writing the superintendent 
of the Fourth Ward school. He was born on 
October 15, 1863, at Milton, Morgan county, 
Utah, the son of Ephraim and Fanny (Jones) 
Swann, natives of England, where the father 
was a prosperous farmer. Becoming converted 



43^ 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



to the doctrines of the Mormon church, they 
left their native land to live among the people 
of their faith, emigrating from England and 
coming to the United States in 1858, crossing 
the plains to Utah with ox teams. 

Their first home in the new country was at 
Ogden, where they engaged in farming until 
i860, when they moved to Milton, remaining 
there until 1864. They then took up their resi- 
dence at Croydon, where they continued farm- 
ing until 1884. They then sold their interests 
in Utah and moved to Preston, Idaho, and took 
up one-half of the ranch now owned and occu- 
pied by their son, Edward, and he took up the 
other half. It is located three miles northeast 
of the town, and here the father and son con- 
ducted agricultural operations together until 
the death of the former on September 13, 
1896. Since that time the widowed mother 
has made her home with her son on the place. 
Edward W. Swann was reared and for the 
most part educated in Morgan county, Utah, 
and after leaving school worked with his father 
as a farmer. He came with his parents to Ida- 
ho, and has always lived at the parental fire- 
side. After taking up the quarter-section ad- 
joining that of his father in Oneida county, 
the}- farmed their land in association until 
death ended his father's labors, and since then 
he has had charge of the entire estate, which 
comprises 320 acres of excellent land and is 
nearly all under cultivation. It yields abun- 
dantlv the crops suited to the soil and climate, 
and makes a fine place for the extensive stock 
industry which Mr. Swann also carries on. 
Good buildings of even* needed kind adorn it 
and provide for the family and the stock, and 
the other improvements and all its equipments 
are kept in excellent condition and down-to- 
date. 

Mr. Swann was married at Logan, Utah, 
mi March 16, 1892, to Miss Maria Erickson, a 
native of that state and daughter of Bendt and 



Ellen (Jhonsen) Erickson, natives of Den- 
mark, who came to Utah in the middle sixties. 
The father is a farmer and passed the most of 
his life in this country in Box Elder county, 
Utah, but both himself and his wife now live 
at Preston. Mr. and Mrs. Swann have four 
interesting children, Ephraim, Fannie Maria. 
Ben E. and Robert G. 

WILLIAM F. TOLLEV. 

To the intelligent observer of the march 
of progress and civilization in the great young 
states of the western part of the United 
States, these facts have frequently held their 
attention : first, the large number of intelli- 
gent and practical men of sound physique and 
mental ability who have been England's con- 
tribution to the forces of the new civilization; 
and, second, the character and personnel so 
far above the ordinary of the English nation 
which have here made permanent homes and 
been identified with the leading industries of 
that land. And, in this connection, while we 
are making record of the progressive men of 
this section of the state, we must say more 
than a passing word of one of these English- 
men, who is now one of the component parts 
of an active, vigorous and prosperous com- 
monwealth, thousands of miles from his na- 
tive land. 

We refer to the venerable William F. Tol- 
ley, who, after years of useful activity in va- 
rious occupations, is now passing the eventide 
of his life on his beautifully located and eligi- 
ble ranch, which is situated less than ten 
miles from Idaho Falls, in a northeastern di- 
rection. Here he is surrounded by all of the 
comforts and some of the luxuries of the 
highest form of civilized life, although his res- 
idence but a few short years ago was part of 
an extended wilderness of almost unbroken 
desert. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



433 



Mr. Tolley was born on November 23, 
1824, at South Molton, Devon, England, a son 
of Roger and Susan (Fisher) Tolley, who 
were descendants of a long line of reputable 
English farmers of Devonshire, where his 
father ever maintained his home and died in 
1880, at the age of eighty-eight years. His 
mother was the daughter of William Fisher, 
and granddaughter of a William Fisher, who, 
born in England, descended from ancestors 
who long resided as permanent people in the 
sunny land of France, she dying at the age of 
seventy-two years, in the year 1870, at the 
family home in South Molton. This worthy 
couple has eight children who attained ma- 
turity. 

William F. Tolley was early initiated into 
the art and mystery of agriculture as con- 
ducted on the rich Devonshire farms,- having 
but three months' attendance at the public 
schools of his birthplace, where he remained 
until he had attained the age of twenty-one 
years. Thereafter he was for six years prom- 
inently identified with railroad construction in 
Wales, being one of the first men to strike a 
blow in the construction of the South Wales 
Railroad, his scene of action being near Neith. 
Later, in Cornwall, England, he gave his serv- 
ices in railroad work and also in mining, re- 
maining there until the date of his emigration 
in 1854, when he crossed the Atlantic to New 
York City, where he passed about four years in 
aiding in the construction of the Williamsburg 
and Brooklyn reservoir, a most magnificent 
piece of iron work and masonry. 

In 1858, his religious affiliations with the 
Mormon church caused him to cross the plains 
to Utah with a caravan of fellow churchmen, 
consisting of seventy-two wagons drawn by 
oxen. Arriving in Utah, he settled in San- 
pete county, and devoted his attention to 
farming for two years, from there removing 
to Fountain Green, where he helped to build 

24- 



the settlement and resided six years, during 
which time he was in action against the In- 
dians in the Black Hawk war, as a souvenir 
of which he holds in his possession a badge, 
which was designed expressly for and given 
only to veterans of this war. 

From Fountain Green he removed to 
Nephi and there continued farming opera- 
tions for one year, then becoming again iden- 
tified with railroad construction and improve- 
ment, in which employment he continued for 
twenty years, during which time he assisted 
in laying the rails of nearly every railroad 
running through Utah, the Union Pacific, 
Central Pacific, the Utah Central, the Utah 
Southern & Western, and the Utah Northern, 
filling most satisfactorily the position of fore- 
man, later being foreman of constructon on 
the Montana Central and the Great Northern, 
continuing along the line from Helena, Mont., 
to St. Paul, Minn. In 1892 he came to his 
present location, in what is now Bingham 
county, but then was in Oneida county, and 
from that time to the present he has been 
most diligently engaged in developing and 
building up one of the most conveniently ar- 
ranged, home-like ranches in this section of 
the county, his course of life causing him to be 
considered a man of great probity of char- 
acter, of high moral worth, of deep religious 
principles and a practical business man of un- 
usual ability. 

In political faith he holds with the Repub- 
lican political party, and, while a resident of 
Nephi, his ability for holding office was 
recognized by his elevation to the office of 
probate judge, watermaster and sheriff, in all 
of which he demonstrated wise administrative 
ability, the office of sheriff particularly, in that 
formative period, requiring not only tact and 
business qualifications, but unflinching and 
undaunted courage. He was ordained 
teacher in the Church of Latter Day Saints 



434 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



by Bishop George Cannon over a quarter of 
a century ago, during these long years exer- 
cising a wise and beneficial influence in all of 
the spheres of his religious activity, and be- 
ing now the incumbent of the office of high 
priest. 

In 1849 occurred his marriage in England 
to Sarah Warren, a daughter of William and 
Hannah (Bartlett) Warren, her parents re- 
siding all of their lives in South Molton, Eng- 
land, where her father was a tanner. She was 
the mother of ten children that are now living. 
Mr. Tolley's second marriage occurred in 
1870, when he was united to Sarah Gadd, also 
a native of England, and a daughter of Sam- 
uel and Eliza (Chatman) Gadd. Her father 
was a member of the first handcart company 
that crossed the plains in 1856, he drawing 
a handcart on the journey, and the labors and 
privations he there experienced so under- 
mined his constitution that he died before 
arriving at his destination. His widow con- 
tinued on the way and was for years a nurse 
in Utah, her death occurring in February, 
1893, and she lies buried in the cemetery at 
Nephi. Mr. Tolley's second wife passed away 
from earth on April 23. 1902, and her mortal 
remains await the resurrection at Milo ward 
in Bingham county, being at her death fifty- 
two years of age and the mother of the fol- 
lowing children: Lovina, Joseph R, Isaac B., 
Louis R., Edith, Albert, Mary L., Leah E., 
Eugene and Ruth A. This venerable pa- 
triarch is not only a father, but also a grand- 
father and a great-grandfather, the entire 
number of his living descendants amounting 
to 115 individuals. 

GEORGE TANNER. 

The enterprising, successful and public- 
spirited ranchman of the vicinity of Grace, 
Bannock county, Idaho, who is the subject of 



this memoir, was born at Tooele City, Utah, on 
June 29, 1861, being the eldest of nine chil- 
dren born to the marriage union of George and 
Martha (Craner) Tanner. Both paternal and 
maternal ancestors were English, the grand- 
father, Thomas Tanner, being a shoemaker. 
The parents came to the United States about 
T851 and engaged as pioneer fanners in Utah 
in Tooele City, where the father died on April 
17, 1872, the mother now residing at Mound 
Valley, Idaho. On the maternal side the an- 
cestors were farmers and stockmen in Utah, 
and a brother of the mother has been a highly 
distinguished official of the Mormon church, 
being a member of the first Utah battalion 
crossing the plains in 1847 and for years a 
counsellor of the bishop of Tooele City, where 
he is now living. 

George Tanner, of this review, attained an 
excellent education at Tooele City, and in 1879 
began life for himself as a teamster, conducting 
this occupation with commensurate success for 
years. In 1880 and 1881 he was engaged in 
railroad construction on the Utah Northern 
Railroad, passing two summer seasons in Mon- 
tana in this labor, thereafter in 1882 going to 
Canada to engage in the same work on the 
Canadian Pacific, thence returning to Philips- 
burg. Mont., in 18S3, thereafter making his 
permanent home in Idaho. 

In 1890 he commenced his ranching opera- 
tions in his present location near Grace, Ban- 
nock county, which is his postoffice address 
and here he owns 200 acres of eligibly located 
' and desirable grazing land, a portion of it being 
generously irrigated and responding to its cul- 
ture with bounteous crops. Mr. Tanner has 
given much time and attention to the irrigation 
question, and is a stockholder in the Last 
Chance Canal Co.. in which he served as a di- 
rector and as its secretary. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tanner are loyal and consist- 
ent members of the Mormon church, and he 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



435 



has been honored with various official positions 
in its service, being at present the efficient 
clerk of his ward and the first assistant super- 
intendent of the Grace Sunday school. 

On December 21, 1893, Mr. Turner was 
united in marriage with Miss Nellie Peck, a 
daughter of Hezekiah and Mary (Nowlin) 
Peck, who are prosperous ranchers of Bannock 
county, their home estate consisting of 320 
acres of land. Mrs. Tanner was born in Salt 
Lake City on January 5, 1876, but attained 
womanhood in the county of her present resi- 
dence, her parents removing hither soon after 
her birth. She has presented her husband with 
six children, namely : Mary Fern, born Oc- 
tober 9, 1894; George W., deceased; Martha 
A., born April 3, 1897; Hezzie P., born Aug- 
ust 26, 1899; Iris, born July 27, 1901, and Ar- 
dell, born May 9, 1903. The family is highly 
esteemed in the church and the community 
and a genial hospitality pervades the home, 
where their numerous friends are frequently 
and cordially entertained. 

SAMUEL SWANNER. 

The ancestral chain of Mr. Swanner runs 
back through two generations of life in Amer- 
ica to Germany, where for centuries the ances- 
tral families have been resident, ever con- 
tributing to the welfare of their respective 
communities and to the enhancement of the 
general good. The paternal grandfather, 
James Swanner, emigrated to America in the 
beginning of the Nineteenth Century and lo- 
cated as a farmer in Pennsylvania, where he 
lived to be an old man, long surviving his wife 
and standing high in the community. His 
son, Samuel, the father of the genial post- 
master of Haden, Fremont county, Idaho, at- 
tained mature life and married in the neigh- 
borhood of the parental homestead in Penn- 
sylvania, thereafter removing to Iowa in 1848 



and becoming an early pioneer settler of Mo- 
nona county, where he developed and culti- 
vated a fine farm until 1863, when with his 
family he joined the migration to Oregon, 
thereafter settling at Smithfield, Cache 
county, Utah, and identifying himself with 
farming operations until his death in 1878, at 
the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, in maid- 
enhood Miss Mary Cole, was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, where she was reared, educated and mar- 
ried, being the faithful and uncomplaining com- 
panion of her husband through all their varying 
experiences, and dying in 1894 at the age of 
seventy-three years, the mother of nine chil- 
dren, the eldest being Samuel, the immediate 
subject of this narrative. 

Mr. Swanner was early taught the dignify 
of labor, exemplifying the theory by studious 
practical attention to the duties of the various 
homesteads of his parents until he was fifteen 
years of age, when he took up the rigorous 
and strenuous life of a freighter, conducting 
this to' many points and with a marked finan- 
cial success until 1873, when, marrying", he 
made his residence at Smithfield, Utah, and 
engaged in the prosecution of carpentry until 
1886, which year marked his advent in Idaho, 
as he then made his family home at Rexburg, 
there continuing operations in contracting 
and building until 1889, when the possibilities 
of securing the advantages presented in the 
Teton Basin induced him to remove thither, 
secure a homestead and engage in that pro- 
ductive branch of the state's great industrial 
the raising of stock. 

From that time to< the present he has been 
intimately concerned in every enterprise of pub- 
lic movement of the basin, receiving the com- 
mission of postmaster of Haden in 1901, also 
holding the office of justice of the peace and 
the important educational one of school 
trustee. In the Republican political party he 
takes a distinctive rank, as a member of the 



43 6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



county committee of the same party, being uni- 
versally recognized as a man of strong char- 
acter, fertile resources and great executive 
ability. Further evidence of his capability to 
successfully and creditably hold official trusts 
is given by his efficient service as deputy 
United States marshal at Blackfoot, Idaho, 
for a period of eight years, as under sheriff of 
Bingham county for four years under Sheriff 
Samuel Taylor, and by his capable administra- 
tion of the duties of stock inspector of Bing- 
ham county for two years. On August 31, 
1873, were solemnized the marriage rites 
uniting Mr. Swanner with a most estimable 
lady, Miss Celia Morrell, a native of Utah, 
and the daughter of William and Matilda 
(Kelsey) Morrell. In her death, at the age of 
forty-four years, on November 22, 1901, the 
whole community sustained a severe loss. Mr. 
and Mrs. Swanner were parents of the follow- 
ing children : Eliza, Willard, Clarence, Har- 
old. Elvira, Claudine, Glenn and Shirley. 

ALBERT TAYLOR. 

There is perhaps no one in the whole ex- 
tent of the Snake River Valley of Idaho who 
possesses the confidence and respect of the 
people of all classes where he is best known in 
a higher degree than does Albert Taylor, of 
Lewisville, Fremont county, for he has been 
a man of affairs in this section of the state from 
the very earliest dawn of the present civili- 
zation, making his home here in 1882, before 
the gang of horse thieves and "rustlers" who 
made the valley their stamping-ground in early 
days had fully been crowded off the stage by 
the influx of law-abiding citizens, and he has 
witnessed every step in the marvelous ad- 
vance in population, development and wealth 
of the vast area which then stretched out for 
mile after mile as a dreary desert, bearing only 
a sasebrush and a cactus growth. 



Mr. Taylor was born at Ogden, Utah, on 
January 18, 1861, the son of P. G. and Mary 
E. (Shurtliff) Taylor, natives respectively of 
Kentucky and Ohio, who were married at 
Salt Lake City after crossing the plains in 
1849, making their permanent home at Og- 
den at a later period. Bancroft's History of 
Utah, page 318, says: "The site of Harris- 
ville, a few miles north of Ogden, was occu- 
pied in the spring of 1850 by Irvin Stewart, 
abandoned the same autumn on account of an 
Indian outbreak, and resettled in 185 1 by P. 
G. Taylor and others." The father early came 
into local prominence, was elected sheriff of 
the, county on the People's ticket, being the in- 
cumbent of the office until 1869, holding this 
office and that of captain of police for four- 
teen years, thereafter rendering excellent 
service as a county commissioner until 1880. 
Both the parents are now living, the father at 
seventy-seven years, while the mother cele- 
brated her seventieth birthday on Christmas 
day, 1902. 

Possessed of a hard)- nature and an ath- 
lete build, at fourteen years of age Mr. Taylor 
became identified with "life on the plains." 
riding the range thereafter for eight consecu- 
tive years, being largely occupied in caring for 
the interests of his father's stock on the nu- 
merous ranches he owned in Utah and Idaho, 
but passing most of his time at the Battle 
Creek ranch in Idaho, and he was then em- 
ployed for two years in construction work on 
the Oregon Short Line Railroad. His first 
visit to the location in the Lewisville neigh- 
borhood was in 1879, where he passed the 
winter in working on the Anderson Canal, 
and, later purchasing 1,000 acres of land, he 
here made a permanent residence in 1882. 
and from that time to the present he has 
been a positive power in the numerous 
schemes of progress and advancement with 
winch he has been connected, doing much to 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



437 



forward the good work of irrigation, assist- 
ing in building the pioneer canal of the sec- 
tion, the Anderson Canal, and holding stock 
in the following named companies, Wilford, 
North Salem, Lewisville. Taylor and Silk's, 
Poverty Flat and Burgess, holding a place 
on the directorate of the latter company. 

He has highly improved and developed 
his home farm of over 300 acres, suitable 
buildings, barns, sheds, corrals, etc., having 
been created for the proper disposition of the 
twin branches of husbandry which are here 
carried to a prosperous issue, general farm- 
ing and the raising, buying and selling of su- 
perior grades of horses, cattle and sheep, the 
value of the estate being largely increased by 
his discriminating care and endeavors, and on 
his outlying tracts he has brought into cultiva- 
tion fully 600 acres. He has conducted mer- 
chandising for one year, and from the organi- 
zation of the county in 1893 to I&9& served as 
a deputy sheriff, among characters with which 
most of his business was connected acquiring 
such a reputation for coolness, shrewdness, and 
intrepidity that he was elected in 1898 as sheriff 
by a decidedly complimentary vote, his admin- 
istration of the duties of his office demon- 
strating the wisdom of the people's choice, 
while in 1902 he was commissioned as the 
postmaster of Lewisville, being the seventh 
person to hold the office, of which he is at 
present incumbent. In the Church of Latter 
Day Saints Mr. Taylor deservedly stands 
high. He was ordained a priest in 1870, two 
years later teacher, two* years later still he was 
made an elder, and, after fo>ur years of con- 
scientious service in this position, he was or- 
dained as one of the Seventies. 

On November 6, 1879, at Salt Lake City, 
were married Mr. Taylor and Miss Susan E. 
Marler, a native of Cache Valley, Idaho, and 
a daughter of William and Lucetta (Gates) 
Marler, natives of Mississippi, who made a' 



permanent residence in Utah, where the father 
died at fifty-seven years of age and the mother 
at forty-two. To this agreeable and harmo- 
nious marriage have been born eleven chil- 
dren, Alberta died on September 20, 1880, 
Lucetta, William, Dora, Frank, Hazel, Ma- 
bel, George, Elsie, Milburn and May. The pop- 
ularity of the family in all circles is great and 
the wide and open hospitality of their attrac- 
tive home furnishes frequent enjoyment to 
their host of friends. 

FI. H. TROWBRIDGE. 

Among the successful farmers and stock - 
growers of the rapidly improving section of 
southeastern Idaho, his fine, highly produc- 
tive ranch of 160 acres being located six miles 
northeast of Idaho Falls, where he is engaged 
in successful farming, having improved his 
real-estate from the unprepossessing condi- 
tions of nature until he has a property that is 
not only fertile and productive, but by his ex- 
ertions and energies has been changed until it 
is attractive and pleasing in its appearance, 
Henry H. Trowbridge is well deserving of at- 
tention in any volume treating of the represent- 
ative men of this portion of the state. He was 
born on March 3, 1847, in Whitehall, N. Y., a 
son of John and Eliza (Foot) Trowbridge, his 
mother being a native of Vermont, and his 
father dying not long after the birth of his son. 
Eliza (Foot) Trowbridge emigrated from New 
York to Illinois, and here Henry passed his 
early life, becoming thoroughly acquainted with 
the processes necessary for successful agricul- 
tural operations and making his home in Boone 
county until 1861. This was the period of the 
great Civil war, and his patriotism being 
aroused by the need of his country of soldiers 
to maintain the integrity of the Union, he en- 
listed in the Union army, becoming a member 
of Company A, One Hundred and Forty-second 



438 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Illinois Infantry, and with the eventful career 
of that historic organization he was connected 
until the close of the war, taking part in many a 
wearisome march and participating in many a 
bloody and hard-fought battle, receiving an 
honorable discharge at the close of his service. 

Mr. Trowbridge resided as a farmer at 
Belvidere, in Boone county, 111., until July, 
1 87 1, when he emigrated to Colorado, which 
state was his home and scene of operations for 
seven years, residing at Golden and at Black 
Hawk ; then, removing to Ogden, Utah, he 
there remained seven years, in the fall of 1884 
coming to the primitive region surrounding 
Eagle Rock, now the beautiful and attractive 
city of Idaho Falls, previously, however, being 
engaged in railroad operations for about six 
years for the Utah Northern, now the O. S. L. 
Railroad. He was so pleased with the country 
surrounding Eagle Rock that he here located 
his permanent home by homesteading 160 
acres, pleasantly located, six miles northeast of 
Idaho Falls, where he has since been occupied 
in the care and development of his property in 
connection with general farming. A broad and 
intelligent observer of the events of the time 
and period, Mr. Trowbridge is a man of 
marked influence in his community, prolific 
in finding means to forward every worthy en- 
terprise which is presented to his notice ; his 
sturdy character and industrious habits justly 
entitle him to the position which he holds 
among his associates as one of the best types of 
the progressive men of his county. 

Mr. Trowbridge has very capably filled the 
office of school trustee for a number of years, 
but has no desire to fill either official place or 
public position, preferring to give his attention 
to his personal affairs. In politics he takes the 
advanced stand of a Socialist, believing that 
the old-time political parties have outgrown 
their usefulness. Mr. Trowbridge was largely 
led in his location in this section of the state by 



his opinion that it was especially adapted to 
the growing of fruit, and that horticulture 
would eventually prove one of the leading re- 
sources of the county, and to this industry he 
has given special attention, planting quite an 
extensive acreage, to which, as to all of his en- 
terprises, he has imparted his indomitable 
spirit, and the trees of his orchard are repaying 
him by showing vigorous and productive vital- 
ity, rapidity and firmness of growth and bear- 
ing qualities, which would indicate that his 
judgment was not mistaken, and he has dem- 
onstrated that horticulture is destined to be 
here an industry of scope and importance in the 
not far-distant future of the county. 

On May 6, 1884, occurred the marriage of 
Elizabeth McCollough and Mr. Trowbridge. 
She is a native of England and a daughter of 
John and Mary (Brown) McCollough, who 
came to the United States in 1874, and located 
in Utah, her father now spending his remain- 
ing years with his children. This worthy couple 
are parents of six children : Myrtle, born on 
July 12. 1885; Eliza, born on December 26, 
1888; Harrison, born on June II, 1890; Jay. 
born on April 8, 1892; Eugene R., born on 
November 10, 1893, anc l Merinda B., born on 
April 3, 1903. 

PHINEUS TEMPEST. 

"Given the man and the opportunity and 
the combination is completed." It is useless to 
say that nothing depends upon the kind of ma- 
terial of which a young man is made. No one 
can sharpen a stick and thus produce a razor. 
Man's plans appear to follow Nature's, and 
Nature's plans, especially in the Great West, 
are broad, diversified and liberal, for we in the 
Great West are an ambitious, nervous, ever- 
active people, disposed to take a man at his 
own estimation, but requiring him to demon- 
strate his ability in some one or more line, and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



439 



in carrying this demonstration to a conclusion, 
money talks for some men, social influence for 
others, and literary labors for others, and it is 
in the latter class that public opinion has placed 
Phineus Tempest, one of the purely literary 
men that Fremont county, Idaho, has claimed 
as a resident. 

He was born on December 2, 1845, at Hal- 
ifax, England, the son of William H. and Mary 
(Lambert) Tempest, and his early education 
was acquired in the excellent schools of his na- 
tive country, this being supplemented by dili- 
gent study, inquiry and the reading of the best 
works of literature. He left Liverpool, Eng- 
land, April 29, 1865, for America, this being 
the day following the reception in that country 
of the news of the assassination of President 
Abraham Lincoln. Proceeding westward by 
the sailing vessel Belle Wood, the ship hauled 
up at New York on June 1, 1865, this being a 
special and the first Thanksgiving clay after 
the Civil war. The 13th of the same month 
found him at St. Joseph, Mo., then the rail- 
road's western terminus. Going from there by 
the steamer Denver up the Missouri River to 
Wyoming, a small boat-landing- in the terri- 
tory of Nebraska, he arrived there on June 
1 6th. Engaging himself to drive oxen to 
Julesburg, Colo., he journeyed thither with 
government supplies, later finding his way back 
to Nebraska City, where he lived until 1871, 
of course being made a citizen on the admission 
of Nebraska into the union of states. From 
1871 he made frequent changes of residence, 
locating in succession in Iowa, Kansas, Utah 
and Idaho, and coming to Rexburg in 1883, 
where he immediately set up and put in opera- 
tion the first mill for sawing native lumber in 
the Upper Snake River Valley, and superin- 
tended it for several years. He meanwhile, in 
1884, established the Gem Nursery at Rex- 
burg, devoted to the culture of small fruits 
suitable to the climate, the first institution of 



that character in that section of the state. This 
he still continues to conduct, and where he pro- 
duces as a specialty the "Never Fail" raspberry 
plants, originated in this locality, and having a 
wonderful record and great popularity in re- 
gions of high altitude, that of Rexburg being 
4,918 feet above sea level. Mr. Tempest also 
established, in 1889, the pioneer weekly news- 
paper known as the Rexburg Press, conducting 
it with ability as a stalwart Republican journal 
until it was sold in 1892. His writings have a 
clear-cut incisiveness and a logical reasoning 
which make them, extremely popular. From 
that time to the present writing he has done 
much other editorial work for various news- 
papers and other publications. Since the es- 
tablishment of the town of Rexburg, Mr. 
Tempest has been much in public station and 
office. He was the first police magistrate to 
hold that position, and was also the first police 
judge of the new city, of which office he is the 
present incumbent. He was the United States 
census enumerator here for the census of 1900. 
In 1863, in his native land, he became con- 
nected with the Mormon church, and is still 
bearing faithful allegiance thereto. When 
Rexburg was in the Bannock ward of the 
Cache Valley stake, Mr. Tempest was one of 
the number transferred into the new Bannock 
stake, erected out of the territory now com- 
prising Oneida, Bannock, Bingham and Fre- 
mont counties, and at this time he was set apart 
by President George Q. Cannon as the sixth 
member of the high council. He served in this 
capacity until the dissolution of the council. 
During this time he was sent on missionary 
work to Montana, his duty being the opening 
and establishment of a new mission. In this 
arduous labor he was engaged for about two 
years and until honorably relieved. His pa- 
triotism has been loyally exemplified at all 
times during his residence in this county, and 
his eldest son, Robert A., served as a member 



440 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



of the First Idaho Volunteers during its entire 
active service in the Philippines, being mus- 
tered out as the bugler of Company E. 

On September 27, 1866. at Nebraska City, 
Neb., Mr. Tempest married with Miss Sarah 
J. Wilson, a daughter of Thomas and Sarah 
Wilson, her birth occurring in Lancashire, 
England, her family residing in England until 
the death of her father. Her mother 
thereafter emigrated, coming to Iowa, thence 
to Utah, and there making her last residence 
in Rexburg with Mr. Tempest until her death. 
The children of Mr. Tempest are : Mary E. 
(Mrs. John Benson), born in the territory of 
Nebraska, in -1867; Louisa C. (Mrs. O. A. An- 
derson), born on New Year's day, 1870, before 
breakfast, in the state of Nebraska; Sarah A. 
(Mrs. Willard Johnson), born on April 17. 
1873, in the state of Iowa; Robert C, born on 
July 8. 1876, near the northwestern comer of 
the state of Missouri; Joseph L., born on No- 
vember 7, 1879. in Norton county, Kans. ; Mar- 
garet A. and Phineus (deceased), twins, born 
on August 21, 1883, in the Cache Valley of the 
territory of Utah ; John Elmer, born on May 
6, 1887, at Rexburg, in the territory of Idaho, 
died at three years of age. 

ALFRED SPARKS. 

Birth and environment are the supreme 
forces which determine the success or failure of 
a life. If these forces act in concert as uplift- 
ing powers success is assured ; if diversely, life 
ends in failure. The determining agencies 
which give direction and trend to their po- 
tency date far back in ancestral history, and 
when we see that Alfred Sparks, now an 
honorable and representative citizen of Bear 
Lake county. Idaho, carries in his arteries a 
pure quality of blood which has been pre- 
served uncontaminated in generation after 
generation of his virile English ancestors, we 



see that he has the advantage of the first 
proposition. When we further see that from 
childhood he has been under the elevating in- 
fluences of parents and associates of deep 
piety, that he has ever been engaged in health- 
ful employment, that he has been active, in- 
dustrious, a man of good morals and sobriety. 
we know that he has the benefit of the second 
proposition, and that birth and environment 
have united in making him a cordial, benevo- 
lent, industrious member of the community, 
standing high in the regard of all the better 
elements of the people who aim to make life 
worth living and do not confine themselves to 
the worship of mammon. 

Mr. Sparks was born in Worcestershire. 
England, on March 7. 1835. a son of George 
and Hannah (Lake) Sparks, the father being 
a prominent surveyor and assessor of his 
county, who, with his wife, after joining the 
Mormon church, emigrated in 1857 and made 
their future home in Lehi, L^tah, where the 
father was a farmer until his death in 1867, 
the mother preceding him on the long journey, 
dying in Missouri in i860. Learning the trade 
of blacksmithing, on January 30, 1853, Alfred 
Sparks was united in marriage with Miss 
Jane A. Fowler, a daughter of Samuel and 
Ann (Linton) Fowler, who, in 1879. left their 
native England and took the long journey 
across oceans, mountains, the far-stretching 
prairies and the long emigrant trail across the 
plains to Ding-le, Idaho, where their deaths 
occurred, that of the mother on June 30, 1891. 
and that of the father on December 4, 1893, 
he being an elder in the Mormon church at 
the time of his death. Their son, Thomas 
Fowler, was for many years first a sheriff in 
Utah and later United States marshal of 
Utah, but he is now deceased. 

The year of their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Sparks traversed the Atlantic ocean and the 
many miles of overland distance stretching 




THE SPARKS FAMILY. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



443 



out towards Utah, and made their home in 
Salt Lake City, where Mr. Sparks diligently 
applied himself to his trade, residing there 
until 1865, when they concluded to become 
pioneers of that new country in the Bear 
River section, of which most glowing reports 
had come to their ears. They located first in 
Paris, where they resided until 1876, when 
they came to Dingle, and here they have been 
prime factors in the building up of the com- 
munity, their home being ever an attractive 
center of hospitality. 

Mr. Sparks has now a well-improved 
ranch of 160 acres, on which diversified farm- 
ing and the raising of horses and cattle are 
the principal industries. Always possessing 
a great interest in local affairs in any manner 
tending to benefit the community, Mr. Sparks 
has ever given freely of time and means to 
aid them, and in the church he has shown a 
most beneficial activity, besides other posi- 
tions holding the office of elder for over half 
a century. Mrs. Sparks is a woman of un- 
usual intelligence, character and capability. 
She has done what few married women and 
mothers of families would have troubled them- 
selves to undertake, studied medicine and en- 
gaged in practice since 1883, to the manifest 
benefit of the families of her immediate sec- 
tion. 

A brief record of the children of this 
worthy couple follows: George S., born at 
Salt Lake City, September 29, 1854, died at 
Dingle, July 10, 1902; Alfred W., born at 
Fort Harriman, Utah, January 21, 1857, is 
now a farmer at Dingle, serving also as a con- 
stable; Mary A., born at Fort Harriman on 
February 6, 1859, is now the wife of William 
Burr, of Dingle; Thomas F., born at Lehi, 
Utah, on April 7, 1861. filled with high credit 
a recent term of office as the sheriff of Bear 
Lake county; Laura J. died in infancy; Alice 
M., born at Paris, Idaho, on November 9, 



1865, is now the wife of George Cook, of 
Dingle; Ann A., born on March 1, 1867, died 
in early childhood; John H., born at Paris, is 
a stockman of Dingle; Caroline H., born at 
Paris on February 22, 1872, married Henry 
Dayton and resides at Ding-le. The circle of 
descendants of this sterling pioneer now in- 
cludes fifty grandchildren. 

OLIVER A. ANDERSON. 

Oliver A. Anderson was born on Septem- 
ber 15, 1 86 1, in Fairfield, Utah, a son of Ole 
and Betsy (Shenstrum) Anderson, who came 
from their native land of Sweden in 1847 to 
Salt Lake City, where the first installment of 
the Mormon contingent was taking possession 
of the new land of Zion in the desert wastes 
around the Great Salt Lake of America, there- 
after going to Spanish Fork, where they met 
and were married, and three years later the 
family removed to' Fairfield, where the father 
continued agricultural operations on an Indian 
claim near Camp Floyd and also engaged in 
the manufacture of brick until 1883, when he 
transferred the family home to the new town 
of Rexburg, Idaho, there taking a homestead 
of 160 acres, nine miles south of the town, and 
was thereafter connected with its development 
and stockraising until his death, at the age of 
sixty-five years, on December 2, 1888, the 
mother surviving him, and continuing her 
home on the homestead farm in Rexburg until 
the present writing, having accomplished 
seventy-three years of life. Mr. Anderson was 
twenty-nine years old when he commenced act- 
ive life on his own account, and from that time 
to the present he has been a diligent worker at 
various occupations, some of the more recent 
ones being farming and draying for his brother 
Olaf. 

He was married with Miss Louisa C. Tem- 
pest, on August 13, 1887. and she is a daughter 



444 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



of Phineus and Sarah J. Tempest, of whom 
mention is made on other pages of this volume. 
The names and births of the children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Anderson are as follows: Oliver C, 
born on September 17, 1888; Ole F., born on 
October 19, 1890; Violet J., born on February 
4, 1893; Leslie, born on February 8, 1898; 
Alice L., born on July 14, 1901. 

HON. JOHN L. UNDERWOOD. 

No thoughtful man would ever attempt 
to explain all the differences of character and 
dispositions by the circumstances in which the 
development of the individual man is sur- 
rounded, and few would deny that there is 
much in heredity. The lessons of the parental 
fireside and along the wayside during the 
formative period of life are productive of re- 
sults and all must admit that birth and breed 
will tell in the long run in spite of all condi- 
tions, and the qualities of superior manhood 
will be transmitted from generation to genera- 
tion, disappearing at times it may be, but al- 
ways returning in the strain to which they 
belong. 

The eventful life, character and career of 
Hon. John L. Underwood, now the efficient 
and capable postmaster of the brisk little city 
of Montpelier, Idaho, is an apt and forcible 
illustration of this principle, for the Under- 
wood family has been prominently connected 
with the history of England, for many gener- 
ations in that country being identified in ' a 
forcible and effective manner with the for- 
tunes of the state, military achievements and 
industrial enterprises of importance. In this 
country it dates its occupancy early, tracing- 
back to the momentous days when the French 
and Indian wars were being contested by the 
people of New England, members of the fam- 
ily being represented, not only in those wars, 
but also in the American Revolution. With 



this English strain of blood, several genera- 
tions ago, by marriage with a native of 
Germany, the thrift, industry and social qual- 
ities so characteristic of the Fatherland were 
commingled with the Underwood blood. 

Hon. John L. Underwood, the subject of 
this review, was born at Deposit, Broome 
county, N. Y., on January 15. 1832. a son of 
Philip and Angeline (Peters) Underwood, na- 
tives of New York, and representative farmers 
of Broome count}-, the father being a son of 
Jonas Underwood, also a native of New York, 
but tracing back, as before indicated, through 
veterans of the Revolutionary war to the prim- 
itive emigrant in New England. Of eight 
children of his parents four are now living, 
and from Broome county the family removed 
to Illinois to join a hardy band of pioneers 
that there installed the first foundations of 
the magnificent wealth and culture-develop- 
ment that now prevails in that state. 

After receiving a good education in private 
educational institutions of New York. John 
L. Underwood accompanied his parents to 
Illinois, there engaged in agriculture until 
1857. when he went to Iowa and was there en- 
gaged in boring artesian wells, being pros- 
pered in his undertaking until the breaking 
out of the Civil war, when his loyal patriotism 
caused him to fling down the auger and de- 
vote his energies to the defense of his country, 
enlisting as a member of Company H. Four- 
teenth Iowa Infantry, on November 6, 1861. 
accompanying his regiment in its eventful 
and brilliant career in the Army of the Cum- 
berland, where among the historic battles and 
skirmishes be participated in the capture of 
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, thereafter 
being engaged in the closely contested battle 
of Pittsburg Landing, where he was not only 
wounded but taken prisoner, and held for 
about ninety days, then being paroled, and, 
in consequence of the result of his wounds. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



445 



being later discharged, never however fully re- 
covering from the effects of the wound, from 
which he is still a sufferer. 

Very soon after his discharge from mili- 
tary service, he came to the. West, locating in 
Montana, where he engaged first in freighting 
operations and later in cattleraising, driving 
herds of cattle through Idaho in 1875 and 
1876, at that time becoming acquainted with 
this section, thereafter engaging in the buying 
and shipping of cattle from Idaho points and 
becoming a prominent citizen of the state. He 
later engaged in the meat business at Soda 
Springs, going to Paris in 1879, from there, in 
1886, removing to Montpelier, which has 
since been his residence. 

Mr. Underwood has had much to do with 
political affairs and public matters in Idaho. 
He was a delegate to the constitutional con- 
vention that framed the constitution of the 
state, being one of the leading factors in the 
discussion of the numerous questions settled 
in the drafting of that important document, 
' and, later, as a member of the state Senate in 
the first and second sessions of the state Leg- 
islature, greatly assisting in framing the early 
laws of the state. ' In this connection, in 1890 
he introduced a bill to create the Idaho Na- 
tional Guards, in spite of an organized and de- 
termined opposition, succeeded in carrying 
the bill through into enactment as a law. He 
was also a zealous champion of, and took a 
very prominent part in the establishment of 
the Idaho State Soldiers' Home, giving the 
full strength of his strong individuality in 
favor of this important measure, which was 
made law in 1894. 

He was appointed by President Cleveland 
the postmaster of Montpelier, and also was 
made the United States commissioner of his 
Federal district; further than this, his serv- 
ices have been in demand as a justice of the 
peace, in the duties of which important office 



he has well conserved the interests of his peo- 
ple. In 1898 he was again commissioned 
postmaster by the McKinley administration, 
being continued in the office by the appoint- 
ment of President Roosevelt, and he is now 
discharging its duties with capability, and to 
the satisfaction of the people of the city, ir- 
respective of political affiliation. Fraternally 
Mr. Underwood is a prominent member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having 
"passed the chairs," and he has represented 
his lodge in the grand lodge as a delegate. 
He still retains his interest in his comrades 
of the Civil war by his connection with the 
Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is 
one of the members of the post organized at 
Montpelier, and its first commander. 

On February 14, 1879, was solemnized the 
marriage of Miss Elizabeth M. Whitman 
with Mr. Underwood, and for her ancestral 
history, and the record of her parents, we 
would refer the reader to the sketch of Edwin 
C. Whitman, appearing on other pages of this 
volume. Mr. and Mrs. Underwood have been 
the parents of four children : Philip died at 
Soda Springs, in 1883, at the age of thirty-six 
months; Frank died at Soda Springs, in De- 
cember, 1883, at the age of twenty-two 
months; Florence A., now a student at the 
Conservatory of Music at Detroit, Mich. ; 
Esther A., the efficient assistant in the Mont- 
pelier postoffice. 

In all the relations of life Mr. Underwood 
has comported himself as a tine type of a 
high-minded, upright and considerate gentle- 
man; among the rich he has stood independ- 
ent, self-reliant and dignified, while to the 
poor he has been ever courteous, kind in 
benevolence and cordial in sympathy. As a 
citizen no man has stood higher or has been 
entitled to a higher place in the esteem of the 
people, while in domestic life he has bright- 
ened, warmed and stimulated life, not only 



446 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



among members of his own family, society 
circles and social gatherings, but also among 
the numerous guests who receive at his resi- 
dence a most genial hospitality. 

CHARLES VALENTINE. 

Born on May 2, 1846, at Bornholm, Den- 
mark, being a son of Valentine and Angelina 
(Kofert) Valentine, whose ancestors trace 
back for many generations as residents of that 
little kingdom, Mr. Charles Valentine, a 
representative farmer and rancher of Fre- 
mont county. Idaho, where he is residing on 
his pleasantly located and profitable ranch, 
which is situated only one mile from Salem 
postoffice, is surely entitled to mention as one 
of the representative and creditable citizens 
of this highly favored portion of the Great 
West. His parents became interested in the 
doctrines of the Church of Latter Day Saints 
in their native land through the efforts of 
faithful missionaries, and in 1852 they joined 
one of the companies of Mormon emigrants, 
coming from 1 Denmark across the Atlantic 
Ocean and the greater part of the continent 
of America, continuing their journey from 
the Misouri River with a Mormon caravan of 
ox teams, safely arriving at Utah, after pa- 
tiently enduring the trials and dangerous de- 
privations incident to such a long journey, 
when hostile bands of Indians were almost 
daily hovering around the train, and all the 
manifold perils of life in an uninhabited coun- 
try surrounded them on every side. Soon 
after their arrival in Utah, they permanently 
located at Brigham City, where thev were 
engaged in agricultural pursuits during the 
remainder of their lives, the father dying on 
September 28, 1877, at the age of sixty-four, 
the mother surviving him and dying at the 
age of sixty-seven years, on June 11, 1884. 
Both now lie buried at Brigham City. 



Their son, Charles Valentine, attained 
manhood in Utah, passing his time after the 
usual manner of the young men of the place 
and period, at the age of twenty-one engag- 
ing in farming in Box Elder county. Utah, 
and also conducting extensive freighting 
operations, journeying in this occupation from 
Corinne to various points in Montana, 
Nevada and other states, and manifesting rare 
qualifications for the prosperous conducting 
of arduous business operations. In this con- 
nection we will incidentally remark that at 
the age of twelve years he drove an ox team 
from Utah into California, being twice cor- 
raled by Indians, but escaped without mo- 
lestation and making his journey with as 
much expedition and with as little trouble as 
many an older man would have done. A 
stanch Democrat in political faith, during his 
residence in Box Elder county his recognition 
as a strong, resolute and active citizen was 
manifested by his being called to hold the 
office of deputy sheriff for a period of six 
years, in which his active efforts brought fa- 
vorable results to the cause of law and order, 
and during his term of office he made the 
long journey across the plains between times. 
In 1884 Mr. Valentine came to Fremont 
county. Idaho, and settled on a homestead of 
160 acres where he now resides, and from 
that time to the present he has devoted his 
energies to general farming, stockraising and 
to those public matters of a local nature 
which are necessary to the successful develop- 
ment of that section of the country, and he 
has been extremely prominent in irrigation 
matters. Not only in social affairs has his 
energy been manifested, but he has been a 
most loyal and consistent member of the 
Mormon church, in which he is now one of 
the Seventies, and for twelve years held, to 
the satisfaction of his church people, the of- 
fice of counsellor at Salem. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



447 



The married life of Mr. Valentine began 
on April 20, 1867, when he wedded Miss 
Sarah S. Loveland, born on November 2, 
1848, at Pottawattamie, Iowa, and a daughter 
of Chester and Rosannah (Winter) Loveland, 
who became residents and early settlers of 
Bountiful, Utah, in 1850, after enduring many 
persecutions in their Eastern home for their 
adherence to their religious conviction. The 
father was a man of more than ordinary abil- 
ity and for several years held the commission 
of a colonel in the United States army, in 
which he maintained a high standing on ac- 
count of his brilliant qualities and gallantry. 
He died on March 5, 1886, at the age of 
sixty-eight years, being survived by his wife, 
who at her death, on April 13, 1893, had at- 
tained the age of seventy years. Of the eight 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Valentine five are 
now living: Rosannah, Sarah S., Charles B., 
Myrtle, Jesse, and they have an adopted 
daughter, Susan. The names of the deceased 
children are: Agnes C, who is buried in 
Brigham City; Venice J., buried at Call's 
Ford, Utah, and Chester, who also lies buried 
at Brigham City. 

C. W. WADSWORTH. 

A native son of the West and a man of su- 
perior mental endowments, scholastic enter- 
tainments and religious devotion, Charles W. 
Wadsworth, now a leading farmer and stock- 
man of Shelley district of Bingham county, 
Idaho, has achieved success by legitimate means 
and as the result of his own efforts. He is 
ranked today as one of the best elements of 
the civilization of his state, being one of the 
important factors which has compassed the de- 
velopment of this country, and demonstrated 
what may be accomplished by those who are 
willing to take advantage of the opportunities 
presented not only in Bingham county, but else- 



where in the state of Idaho in its various fields 
of industrious activities. 

Mr. Wadsworth was born at Riverdale, 
Utah, on August 7, i860, being a son of 
Abiah and Augusta (Hubbard) Wadsworth. 
natives respectively of Maine and Wisconsin. 
His father was born on May 25, 1810; his 
marriage occurred in Maine in 1850, himself 
and his young wife thereafter crossing the 
plains with one of the Mormon ox-team cara- 
vans to Utah, where the family home was lo- 
cated at East Weber and where he followed 
the combined vocations of carpenter and 
turner until 1886. when, coming te> Idaho, in 
Bingham county, he availed himself of his. 
homestead right, locating eig'hty acres of gov- 
ernment land and engaged in the primitive 
operations necessary to the development of a. 
farm from a state of nature, at which he zeal- 
ously labored for the rest of his life, his death 
occurring on April 17, 1899. His parents 
were Sedate and Susan (Harsen) Wadsworth,, 
lifelong residents of Maine. His wife, Mrs. 
Augusta Wadsworth, was born on June 5, 
1840, and now resides in this county. In 
1884, Mr. Wadsworth commenced the busi- 
ness activities of life on his own account by 
engaging in farming and stockraising, and 
learning" of the splendid opportunities await- 
ing the touch of the intelligent and active 
worker in Bingham county, he came thither 
in 1886 and located on a homestead in Taylor 
ward, which, after making some improve- 
ments, he sold in 1900, and purchased his 
present place of 200 acres, where he con- 
tinued to be identified with agricultural and 
stockraising industries, being prospered in his 
undertakings and held in high esteem for 
his excellent and attractive social qualities. 
He is the popular superintendent of the Mor- 
mon Sunday school of Shelley ward, and also- 
has the distinction of being a teacher of the 
ward. 



44§ 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



In Hooper, Utah, on May 8, 1884, occur- 
red the wedding ceremonies of Mr. Wads- 
worth and Miss Hattie Hardy, a native of 
Utah, where she was born on March 26, 1866, 
a daughter of Robert and Annie (Kempton) 
Hardv, natives of Maine and Texas. The 
father is now residing in Taylor ward, Bing- 
ham county, the mother having passed away 
from earth in December, 1899, her mortal 
form now awaiting the resurrection in the 
cemetery of Taylor ward. Her paternal 
grandfather, Joseph Hardy, who was a native 
of Maine, there married Lucy (Blandin) 
Hardy, and they were among the very early 
pioneers of the Mormon faith in that splendid 
planting of civilization in the undeveloped 
section of Utah and both are now, after long 
lives of usefulness, reposing in the soil of their 
adopted state. Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth are 
the parents of the following children : Charles, 
Ira. Carrie E., deceased. Warren, Edith A.. 
Inez and Chester Vernon. In political re- 
lations Mr. Wadsworth has always been an 
uncompromising Republican, taking an earn- 
est and vigorous interest in the counsels and 
work of the party, and, although compar- 
atively young in years, he has seen an ex- 
tensive territory transformed from a magnifi- 
cent buffalo range and Indian hunting 
grounds into useful and prosperous com- 
munities, and can congratulate himself that 
it has been his pleasant duty to perform a fair 
share of this pioneer work. . 

ABIAH WADSWORTH. 

When a new state is being founded the con- 
ditions are not always such as meet the best 
ideas of government, for the moral elements 
may lie held in abeyance by influences that take 
the place of law and stronger justice. That has 
been notably the case in every state of the far 
West, where vigilante organizations have been 



compelled to constitute themselves legal courts 
and in a manner administer rude justice. But 
such were the conditions of the infancy of the 
now wealthy state of Utah ; here everything 
was held by a deeply religions civilization, 
whose influence was potent, not only in the ad- 
ministration of affairs, but in selecting the in- 
dividuals who should constitute its citizens. 
And so when we write of an individual that he 
became a citizen of Utah in the early days, it 
is evident that he was not only a man of re- 
spectability, but of high moral character and 
of deeply founded religious belief. 

Such a man was Abiah Wadsworth, now a 
farmer on a pleasant homestead not far re- 
moved from Taylor postoffice, in Bingham 
county, Idaho. He was born in the state of 
Iowa on March 18, 1849. being a son of Abiah 
and Eliza (Hardy) Wadsworth, natives of 
Maine, the father being born there on May 6. 
1809, and the mother on April 18, 1805. From 
the pleasant surroundings of their rural home 
in Maine, in 1850 the family migrated to Utah, 
that they might there unrestrictedly worship 
God according to their belief and have full pos- 
session of all the privileges of their church re- 
lations. In 1886 the father became a resident 
of Bingham county, Idaho, where he died on 
April 18. 1899. n ' s wife having died on March 
21, 1896. They were the parents of eight chil- 
dren. 

At the age of nineteen years. Abiah Wads- 
worth, the subject of this review, who had 
passed his youthful years in Utah engaged in 
freighting, being prospered in his undertak- 
ings while undergoing the numerous vicissi- 
tudes, hardships and experiences incident to 
that strenuous occupation, on October. 1889, 
became a resident of Bingham county, Idaho, 
and located the homestead on which he now re- 
sides, from its wilderness state developing it 
into fructifying fruitfulness and civilized ap- 
pearance ; and here he is now conducting di- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



449 



versified farming and stockraising operations, 
which promise to be at no far-distant period 
of great scope and importance, while his energy 
and resourceful ability has caused him to be- 
come the owner of a steam threshing outfit, to 
which in the proper season he devotes his at- 
tention, to the benefit of both himself and his 
neighbors. 

In all the operations with which he is con- 
nected Mr! Wadsworth has shown capacity 
and unusual judgment, steadily advancing 
toward the ultimate wealth he has placed as his 
goal in life, while he performs the duties of cit- 
izenship in a direct, conscientious and court- 
eous manner, aiding and abetting" every meas- 
ure that promises to tend to the ultimate good 
of the community and its people, being a 
straightforward, clean, courteous and resource- 
ful citizen, whose life does honor to his ances- 
tors and is pleasantly felt by his associates in 
all business, social and religious circles of his 
community. In his church he is an alternate 
to the high counsellor, and in political relations 
he is identified with the Republican party. 

On January i, 1873, at Mountain Green, 
Utah, occurred the marriage of Mr. Wads- 
worth with Miss Sarah C. Robinson, a daugh- 
ter of John and Lucinda Robinson, who were 
natives of Connecticut, her birth occurring in 
the state of Utah on April 15, 1856, where her 
father after a long and useful residence passed 
from earth and her mother still resides. Mr. 
and Mrs. Wadsworth have the following chil- 
dren: Eva L., Annie E., Frances A., John, 
Burt, May, Alice, Lawrence, Effie, deceased, 
Ellen, deceased, Glenn, Lester and Lillian. 

EDWIN A. WADSWORTH. 

Bingham "county is favored in having en- 
listed in the development of her varied and 
manifold resources, and in the progression of 
her industrial enterprises, men of distinctive 



energy and business ability, and among these 
Edwin A. Wadsworth, the subject of this re- 
view, occupies prominently a leading position. 
He is distinctively a son of the West, one of 
the progressive and capable business men that 
the institutions which the Mormon church so 
early established in Utah have produced. 

The birth of Mr. Wadsworth occurred in 
Weber county, Utah, where he was bom on 
January f6, 1862, a son of Joseph W. Wads- 
worth, a native of Illinois, who came to Utah 
in one of the early Mormon emigrations and 
still resides in Hooper, Utah, passing the even- 
ing of his life in the quiet vocation of agricul- 
ture. His father, Abiah Wadsworth, whose fa- 
ther came from England in early life, was born 
in Massachusetts in the earliest years of the 
Nineteenth Century, and came to Utah in the 
prime of his mature life in 1847, that he might 
enjoy the freedom of his religion. After forty 
years of life in Utah, in 1887 he located land 
in Bingham- county, Idaho, where he made his 
home, being a Seventy in the Mormon church, 
and here this venerated and honorable citizen 
passed from life in March, 1900, at the patri- 
archal age of ninety-one years. The mother of 
E. A. Wadsworth was, before her marriage, a 
Miss Abigail Higley, who, born in Canada, 
married with Joseph W. Wadsworth, in Utah 
in 1857, her father, Myron Higley, born about 
18 1 3, coming from his native land of Canada 
to Utah in 1850 and dying there at the age of 
seventy-five years in 1888, being also a member 
of the Seventies in the Mormon church. The 
mother of Mr. Wadsworth is still living in 
Utah, having been the mother of fourteen chil- 
dren. 

Edwin A. Wadsworth passed his life in 
Utah until the age of twenty-one, attending 
school and to the various duties connected with 
the carrying on of the parental homestead, also 
learning the trade of locomotive engineering, 
which he followed for several years, attaining 



45° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



a marked proficiency and having the distinction 
of being the engineer of the first engine that 
crossed the Snake River at Idaho Falls. In 
1879 he made a prospecting trip through Bing- 
ham county, but his location as a resident 
thereof only dates from 1885. In that year he 
filed upon the homestead which he has since 
developed into the beautiful farm on which he 
now resides, continuing, however, at his trade 
for a number of years as the engineer of the 
mill at Idaho Falls. From 1901, however, he 
has devoted the full strength of his energetic 
nature to farming and stockraising, and is con- 
nected in an active way with general business 
and with the public affairs of his county. 

In business circles, in political life, and in 
all forms of industrial development Mr. Wads- 
worth is leaving the impress of a sturdy man- 
hood and his definite accomplishment to such 
an extent that his life is truly prolific of good 
and sterling results. In educational work he 
has served most efficiently for three terms as 
a trustee of his school district. On April 6, 
1884, at Hooperville. Utah. Miss Elizabeth 
Hunt and Mr. Wadsworth were united in mar- 
riage, she being a native of that place and a 
daughter of Jackson and Nancy (Wilson) 
Hunt, natives of Kentucky, but for many years 
esteemed citizens of Utah. To this union have 
been born the following children : Minnie. 
Nancv. Nora, Eva and Anna, the last two 
named being deceased. 

DANIEL W. WALTERS. 

Descending from ancient and honorable 
families of the rugged, but independent and 
picturesque country of Wales, where the va- 
rious branches of his kin had been established 
for generations without number, Daniel \\ . 
Walters was himself born in South Wales on 
May 28, 1858, as a son of William and Mar- 
garet (Williams) Walters. Becoming adher- 



ents of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints, the religious convictions of the 
parents were so pronounced as to cause their 
emigration from Wales in 1869, that in the 
promised land of Utah, where their religious 
belief had taken permanent root, they might 
find a congenial home and an unalloyed en- 
joyment of their faith. Locating in the pleas- 
ant town of Wellsville in the Cache Valley, the 
life of the family in the West passed pleas- 
antly until the death of the mother, now many 
years ago. 

The father, an industrious member of the 
community, followed the active life of a car- 
penter in the labors connected with that craft, 
continuing to be thus engaged until advanc- 
ing age caused his retirement, his death com- 
ing peacefully to him on January 13, 1901. 
Their son, Daniel W. AYalters. was one of 
the children, four boys and six girls, born to 
the parents, and his school education in Eng- 
lish was wholly embraced in six months' 
attendance at the Wellsville public schools, 
but. although greatly handicapped by this 
deprivation, his energy and perseverance have 
found means to compensate him in a large 
measure for the lack of early educational op- 
portunities. From early childhood Mr. Wal- 
ters has been a farmer, in the realm of agri- 
culture acquiring knowledge and practice of 
the conditions and labors necessary to suc- 
cess, and in this chosen .field of his he has 
attained a high rank and a permanent repu- 
tation. 

The marked advantages of the Upper 
Snake River Valley of Idaho was early pre- 
sented to his notice, and. embued with the 
true spirit of a pioneer, feeling that he was 
competent to develop a magnificent estate 
from the virgin soil of this then almost un- 
touched country, he came In Maho. arriving 
at his destination on February 19, 1883, first 
locating at Lyman, but soon thereafter mak- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



45i 



ing his home at Rexburg, and, after success- 
fully conducting agricultural operations there 
until 1902, he purchased one of the finest 
places along the South Fork of the Snake 
River, it consisting of 160 acres of land, 
eligibly and handsomely located one mile east 
of La Belle postofhce, where he is in pos- 
session of an estate, both productive and en- 
joyable, amply sufficient to maintain its owner 
in ease and comfort. He is, however, not dis- 
posed to live in idleness, and, since 1900 he 
has been largely engaged in the buying and 
selling of hides, his operations in this line of 
business covering the entire state and a por- 
tion of Wyoming. 

The nuptial ceremonies whereby Miss 
Ann Gunnell, a daughter of Francis and Polly 
Ann (Edwards) Gunnell, was united in mar- 
riage with Mr. Walters, were celebrated on 
December 11, 1876, at Wellsville, Utah. Her 
father was born in England while her mother 
was a native of Wales and dying when Mrs. 
Walters was but five years of age. She was 
born at Wellsville, Utah, where her father 
long maintained his home, dying, however, at 
Rexburg, Idaho, not many years ago. Both 
families have been loyal members of the Mor- 
mon church, valued and useful in its various 
circles of activity, Mrs. Walters performing 
a highly acceptable service as a teacher in 
the Relief Society, while in the local and pub- 
lic fields of activity Mr. Walters has ever 
manifested himself as a conscientious, useful 
and law-abiding citizen, allied with the Re- 
publican party in political affairs. The chil- 
dren that have come to cheer and brighten 
the home of this worthy couple are nine in 
number, named and born as follows : Walter 
G., on October 19, 1877; Francis G., June 
19, 1880; Daniel G., August 31, 1882; Sarah 
Ann, October 22, 1884; Margaret, January 
4, 1886; Polly A., April 26, 1889; William 
G., May 27, 1891 ; Edward G, November 1, 



1893; Zilpha, born on October 24, 1896, died 
on January 14, 1897. 

An incident that will serve to illustrate the 
trying experiences inseparably connected 
with the formative period of civilization oc- 
curred during Mr. Walters' early residence in 
Fremont county. A party of five persons 
started to return to Cache Valley and at- 
tempted to ford the Snake River two miles 
below the site of the present bridge. The ice 
had gorged and raised the river, making the 
water so deep that they barely escaped with 
their lives, their team being drowned and 
their wagon, a new one, being torn and splin- 
tered to pieces by the large pieces of ice borne 
down by the rapid stream. The unlucky men 
were rescued by A. A. Anderson, who 
brought them to safety in a boat. 

W. W. WALTERS. 

In the compilation of a work of this char- 
acter it is imperative that we exercise due care 
and discrimination in selecting men of distinc- 
tive merit and prominence in some one or other 
of the departments of life in the section of the 
country where such works find their proper mis- 
sion ; and as a representation of the sterling pio- 
neers who have transformed the bleak, barren 
and unhospitable sagebrush wilderness of the 
West, and especially of Fremont county, 
Idaho, it is but a matter of justice that we ren- 
der recognition to William W. Walters, whose 
highly improved and productive ranch is located 
but one mile from the brisk city of Rexburg, 
he being an earl}' pioneer and an energetic cit- 
izen who in conserving his personal interests 
has added to the value and wealth of the whole 
community. 

He was born on April 23, 1862, in the 
rugged land of Wales, with which his ances- 
tors had been identified for century after cen- 
turv, a son of William L. and Margaret (Wil- 



452 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Hams) Walters, his parents emigrating from 
Wales under the auspices of the Mormon 
church, and coming on the long hazardous 
journey over the Great American Desert, as it 
was termed by early geographers, with a 
Mormon caravan, their effects being conveyed 
by a mule team to Utah when the subject of 
this sketch was only four years of age, the 
family home being made at Wellsville, in the 
Cache Valley of Utah, where the father en- 
gaged in carpentry and resided until his 
death in 1900, at the age of sixty-three years, 
the mother having passed from earth in 1869. 
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Walters was 
well advanced in years when occurred the fam- 
ily migration to Utah, but, bearing the 
journey with remarkably little fatigue for a 
man of his years, he maintained his home at 
Wellsville until his death in 1868, at a vener- 
able age. his wife also dying at the same 
place in 1894, at eighty years of age. 

William Walters is surely entitled to rec- ■ 
ognition as a pioneer for from his earliest 
memory he has been identified with the first 
stages of the advance of civilization, passing 
his youth to the age of eighteen in Cache 
Valley, where he witnessed every phase of the 
remarkable development of that extremely 
productive section, then in 1880 starting in 
business for himself as a farmer and also en- 
gaging in freighting operations from the set- 
tlement of Blackfoot into the northern coun- 
try for two years, while in 1884 he was one 
of the first to take up a homestead in the 
vicinity of Rexburg, where he located on his 
present ranch and engaged in primitive farm- 
ing and cattleraising, the chief avenues to 
wealth in this undeveloped country. He has 
improved his place from a sagebrush condi- 
tion, giving great attention to the problem 
of its irrigation, being one of the pioneers in 
forming irrigation companies, and now com- 
manding an excellent independent ditch. 



A man of industry, prudence and sagacity. 
Mr. Walters has been financially prospered, 
and it is universally conceded that he has 
taken a representative part in building up 
and advancing the interests and prosperity 
of the community. Politically he is allied 
with the Democratic party, but, although 
giving his aid heartily to its support, he does 
not seek place or office. An unostentatious 
and unassuming person, Mr. Walters pos- 
sesses deep piety, and in the Mormon church 
he is now holding the office of elder, and has 
most heartily aided by personal effort and 
otherwise in erecting the churches and the 
Rexburg Academy. 

On June 17, 1887. Mr. Walters married 
with Miss Agnes Kershaw, a daughter of 
John Stoddard and Emily Kershaw, the 
father being a native of Scotland and the 
mother of England, the father coming to 
Utah in 1853, settling first at Cedar City, and 
later coming to the Cache Valley as a pioneer 
settler, thereafter removing to Ogden in 1886. 
where occurred his death in 1894. at the age 
of fifty-eight, the mother having died in 1869, 
at the age of thirty-two years, when Mrs. 
Walters was but an infant. A family of eight 
children has come to the home of Mr. ami 
Mrs. Walters, William, born June 2. 1888; 
Mabel, December 13. 1889; John. May 9, 
1891 ; Jessie, July 2, 1893; Earl, May 24. 
1896; Eva, April 26. 189S: Ouiro. February 
2, 190T ; Emily, November 4. 1902. The en- 
tire family of Mr. Walters stands high in the 
esteem and the confidence of a large circle of 
friends. 

GEORGE P. WARD. 

Exhibiting in his life work and achieve- 
ments the honest integrity and the sturdy and 
resourceful traits of character of the English 
nation. George P. Ward is an ornament to 
American manhood and a useful and active fac- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



453 



tor in the development of the young state of 
Idaho, with which he has united his fortunes 
and cast in his life. He was born on August 
20, 1854, in Walton, Northamptonshire, Eng- 
land, a son of George and Sarah A. (Plant) 
Ward. The father also was born in England, 
on January 1, 1828, and was a baker and gro- 
cer of West Walton, where he married on 
March 28, 1849. He became a member of the 
Mormon church in 185 1, soon thereafter tak- 
ing up missionary work as an emissary of that 
faith, in which labor the greater part of his life 
was successively passed. 

His first wife died in 1857. He, however, 
again married in i860, this wife dying May 7, 
1899. The family emigration, and its journey 
across the plains with ox teams to Salt Lake 
City, Utah, occurred in 1861, and the home 
was made at Hyrum, in the Cache Valley, Utah, 
until 1878, when it was removed to Rich county. 
In 187 1 the old and faithful missionary re- 
turned to England on mission work for the 
church, after his work was accomplished return- 
ing to America. As was his wish, his death oc- 
curred suddenly, on August 17, 1900, at the 
age of seventy-two years and seven months, 
and he now awaits the resurrection in the little 
cemetery at Salem, Fremont county, Idaho, be- 
ing the father of twenty-seven children. His 
father, John Ward, preceded his son from Eng- 
land to the United States, settling first near 
Salt Lake City, Utah, in 186 1 removing to the 
Cache Valley, where he passed the residue of 
his days and was buried at Hyrum. 

Of four children of his parents, George P. 
Ward, the subject of this review, was the eldest 
son and was but seven years of age when he ac- 
companied his parents on their migration to the 
United States. He zealously availed himself of 
the excellent educational advantages presented 
by the schools in the neighborhood of his fa- 
ther's home, and, at the age of twenty years, 
commenced active life for himself as a farmer 



in Cache county, Utah, where he was prosper- 
ously engaged until he moved to the section 
of the Snake River Valley, on April 3, 1885, 
where he made his home, it then being a por- 
tion of Bannock county, Idaho. Here he lo- 
cated a 160-acre pre-emption claim, a timber 
culture claim of forty acres and a desert claim 
of forty acres, situated about seven miles north- 
east of Idaho Falls, and here was his home 
and center of active operations until 1901. 

From the date of their arrival on their place 
Mr. Ward and family began active operations 
to make a home and farm. The first year of 
their residence here a comfortable log cabin 
14x16 feet was erected and about eighty bush- 
els of grain were raised. The second year an 
addition of 12x14 feet was made to the log 
cabin, and a few trees were planted. This log 
house was the family home until 1893, when 
a modern brick house of suitable proportions 
was erected, being completed for occupancy on 
October 7. 

During his residence of sixteen years upon 
this place he made prominent improvements and 
most substantial developments by his thrift and 
industry and the application of brains, making 
his estate of 240 acres not only one of the fin- 
est ranches in the valley, but one of the most 
productive and profitable in this section of the 
state. The first garden products raised in this 
neighborhood were produced by him and his 
exhibits at the fairs brought him premiums on 
all garden products. In 1899 1,000 apple and 
600 prune trees were set out, and in 1900 a 
dozen peach trees were planted, which came 
into bearing in 1903, being the only peaches 
grown in all of this section of country. He 
early became interested in the raising of sheep, 
cattle and horses, and by his influence and per- 
severance he has done much in raising the 
standard of the cattle of this section of the 
state, taking great pains in the selection and 
breeds of his stock, and being a formative fac- 



454 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tor and prominent supporter of the early Fair 
Association for several years, as long as he was 
an exhibitor receiving the first prize for his 
farm products. 

Politically Mr. Ward is a Republican, al- 
ways active and zealous in the service of his 
party. An intelligent and thoughtful member 
of the Church of Latter Day Saints, at the pres- 
ent time he is holding therein the office of first 
counsellor to the bishop. 

On December 21, 1874, Mr. Ward entered 
into matrimonial relations with Miss Mary 
Christine Bindrup. a native of Denmark, and a 
daughter of Christian and Martena (Horup) 
Bindrup. she coming with her parents to the 
United States and to Utah thirty-eight years 
ago. when she was but nine years of age, and 
locating with the family in Cache Valley. Utah, 
where her parents still reside, honored and in- 
fluential residents of the community. Mr. and 
Mrs. Ward have been the parents of nine chil- 
dren : George B., William A., Mary A., 
Charles C, deceased. Martha E.. Nephi O.. Al- 
ice M., John O. and Melvin P. 

As an evidence of the position Mr. Ward 
has justly won in the public esteem and confi- 
dence, we would incidentally remark that he 
is a director in the Fanners' Progressive Canal 
system of irrigation, a director in the Iona 
Sheep Co.. and also a director in the Hillside 
Canal Co. He has been very successful in 
business, social and church relations. His ranch 
is most eligibly situated and thoroughly 
equipped for the thriving business there con- 
ducted, while he is the owner of valuable real 
estate in Iona, where he erected a modern brick 
residence, in the summer of 1901, at a cost of 
$1,500, which is completely equipped along the 
lines of the most approved construction. This 
was completed in December, when Mr. Ward 
moved into it and still occupies it as his home. 
In Bingham county and throughout southeast- 
ern Idaho Mr. Ward is well known, highly es- 



teemed and considered one of the representa- 
tive citizens of the county and the family has a 
high standing in the community. At the time 
of this writing he, in association with some 
neighbors, is preparing to drill a well in the 
center of the block where his residence stands. 
If completed it will be the only well in an area 
of three and one-half miles. 

JOHN WATTS. 

Among the active, enterprising people who 
form the grand composite of the great influx of 
settlers into the Upper Snake River Valley of 
Idaho, where he is now most pleasantly situ- 
ated in his home three miles west of the pros- 
perous town of Rexburg in Fremont county, 
John Watts is descended from old families of 
the Southland and is the son of Robie H. and 
Elizabeth (Heath) Watts, the father for many 
years being an overseer of a cotton plantation 
in Mississippi, in 1840 removing with family 
to Towa. where he was employed in tilling the 
soil for ten years, when, crossing the plains in 
1850 with an ox team and a team of cows, the 
family home was established in Davis county, 
Utah, where the father purchased 160 acres of 
government land, paying $1.25 an acre for it, 
and. by industry, thrift and the application .if 
shrewd business principles to the development 
and cultivation of the land, he became possessed 
of a fine and valuable estate, on which he re- 
sided until his death in 188 1 at the patriarchal 
age of eighty years, the mother surviving him 
and still continuing her residence on the old 
homestead. 

The subject of this review was born on De- 
cember 1. 1847, > n Pottawattamie comity. Iowa, 
as a child accompanying his parents on the haz- 
ardous and wearisome journey across the 
plains, having little opportunity to acquire the 
learning of schools, but, by an observation 
which was early quickened and an experience 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



455 



began in his boyhood, he has become possessed 
of a broad and practical knowledge that has 
been of greater value to him in his life in the 
Western plains and mountains than a college 
course could possibly have been. At the age 
of sixteen years he began life on his own ac- 
count by engaging in farm labor, at which he 
continued for three years, thereafter driving 
teams in Montana and Nevada for two years, 
then going to Missouri, where was his home for 
seven highly active years. Thence returning to 
Utah, he was concerned in mining operations in 
Bingham Canyon for about one year and then 
he came to Idaho. 

Here he located a quarter-section of land in 
the vicinity of Idaho Falls, and, in connection 
with the work of its development, he conducted 
a draying business for seven years in Idaho 
Falls, then selling this business and all but five 
acres of his homestead, in the fall of 1892 he 
proceeded to Rexburg and purchased 160 acres 
near his present location, which he exchanged 
and sold and now owns a finely improved prop- 
erty of 120 acres, three miles west of Rexburg, 
where he is engaged in diversified farming op- 
erations and in the buying and selling of stock, 
being well known and popular among the stock- 
men of a wide area. In the Democratic party 
Mr. Watts has been known as an energetic 
worker for the success of his cause, and in the 
Church of Latter Day Saints he served as 
superintendent of the Sunday school of Bur- 
ton; going to Florida in 1895 from Rexburg, 
he there conducted a mission with acceptable re- 
sults for over three well-filled years. 

On October 23, 1870, were married Miss 
Susan F. Austin and Mr. Watts, she being the 
daughter of Rinaldo and Mahala (Watts) Aus- 
tin, natives of Virginia, where they were reared, 
educated and married, thereafter removing as 
pioneers to Missouri, where the father died in 
1844 and is buried in the little cemetery at 
Sugar Creek, the mother thereafter coming to 



Utah, where she died at South Weber at the 
age of seventy-five years. The children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Watts are: Rinaldo died in 1871 ; 
Ada M., born January 31, 1873; Elijah died 
in infancy; Ida M., born March 10, 1879; John 
A., born January 31, 1884. 

JAMES WATTS. 

Among the little band of hardy, resolute 
and God-fearing people, who made their 
homes in the desolate and desert region of 
the Snake River Valley of Idaho in 1883 and 
founding there the pioneer town of Rexburg, 
was James Watts, who was born on August 
25, 1855, at South Weber, Utah, son of Robie 
H. and Elizabeth (Heath) Watts, and for 
further details of the family history the reader 
is referred to the sketch of John Watts, ap- 
pearing elsewhere in this volume. James 
Watts grew to maturity in Utah and there- 
after conducted the agricultural operations of 
his father's farm for eight years, being united 
in marriage with Miss Mary A. Jones on 
March 19, 1876, and after seven years of mar- 
ried life in Utah, they took their way to the 
new lands of Idaho, where Mr. Watts filed 
on a homestead claim of 160 acres, and ap- 
plied himself diligently to the development 
and improvement of his. property, working to 
get the benefits of water on the land and ap- 
plying himself to his occupation of farming 
until September 5, 1898, when in the midst 
of his labors he was struck by a hay derrick, 
which on the following day resulted in paral- 
ysis, rendering him speechless and crippled, 
and in this condition he has ever since con- 
tinued, his wants being ministered unto by his 
devoted wife, who has been like a guardian 
angel in her constant care over him. As 
an evidence of the high character of Mr. 
Watts, and the appreciation of his services 
held by his superiors in the church, we note 



456 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



that at the time of his injury he was the first 
counsellor to the bishop of his ward and that 
he was retained in that office for three years 
thereafter. 

Mrs. Watts is the daughter of David D. 
and Elizabeth Jones, natives of Wales, who, 
emigrating in 1869, came directly to Utah, 
where he became a resident of South Weber, 
where he took up a homestead of eighty acres 
which by his constant and unintermitting 
labors during a long series of years became 
one of the desirable places of the section and 
here his faithful wife passed on to the en- 
joyment of the spirit land August 19, 1899, 
whereupon he sold this property and removed 
to his present residence at Basalt, Idaho, 
where he is the owner of a fine property. For 
further particulars see sketch of John Jones, 
elsewhere in this volume. 

The names and births of the children of 
Mr. and Mrs. Watts we here record : Anna 
E., born January 1, 1877; James C, born 
March 4. 1878; William A., born December 
13, 1879; Joseph E., born April 21. 1881 ; 
Hyrum F.. born December 25, 1882 (all 
born at South Weber) ; Lilly M., born May 
13. 1885; Mary A., born June 27, 1887 (both 
born at Rexburg) ; Jessie C, born November 
9, 1888; John L., bom November 8, 1890; 
Ada E., born February 22, 1894; Phebe H., 
born September 18. 1896; Moses, born No- 
vember 14. 1899 (all born at Burton). 

THOMAS WARD.. 

Thomas Ward, of Bloomington. Bear 
Lake county, was born in 1838, at Moira, 
Leicestershire, England, a son of John and 
Emma (Hogg) Ward. His parents were na- 
tives of England and were married in 1837. 
The father was a collier and worked in the 
mines in his native land until, in 1864, they 
came to the United States at the son's re- 



quest, and located at Bountiful. Utah. Two 
years later they removed to the neighborhood 
of Bloomington, Idaho, and there lived on a 
farm until, in the fullness of time, the end 
came, and they were laid to rest amid the 
pleasant surroundings of their new home. 
During his life the father was prominent in 
the work of the Mormon church, filling 
several offices of importance and responsibil- 
ity in its councils, both in England and in 
this country. John Ward, the great-grand- 
father of Thomas, was a soldier in the Crimean 
war and assisted at the siege and was pres- 
ent at the surrender of Sebastopol. 

Thomas Ward was educated in the schools 
of Whitwick, Leicestershire, England, and, 
in 1 86 1, he came to the United States, pro- 
ceeding at once to Salt Lake City and there 
taking part in the work of the Church of the 
Latter Day Saints, with which he had been 
connected from his fourteenth year, and which 
he had earlier served as a priest. He passed 
one winter in the Mormon metropolis and 
worked on the President John Theatre, which 
was then in building. In the spring he hired 
to Samuel Onus and went to Tooele, Utah. 
and worked at the charcoal business there and 
in Rush Valley. 

He remained in that neighborhood until 
1863, and, in the autumn of that year, re- 
turned to Bountiful and thereafter engaged in 
limebuming at Hot Springs until 1866. He 
then came to Bear Lake county, and. locating 
at Bloomington, turned his attention to farm- 
ing and limeburning, being the pioneer 
worker in the valley in the latter industry. In 
connection with these pursuits he raised 
stock, and he pushed all his business opera- 
tions vigorously. He has been until recently 
engaged sedulously in church work, presiding 
over the sixth corps of the Seventies, but by 
reason of failing health he is now debarred 
from doing active ministerial work among the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



457 



people. In politics Mr. Ward has been an ac- 
tive and energetic Republican, being for years 
the president of the Republican club of Bloom- 
ington, and also a member of the county" central 
committee of his party. 

Mr. Ward was married in 1869, in Utah, 
to Miss Ann Reese, a native of Wales and 
a daughter of Thomas and Margaret Reese, 
of that country, where they passed their en- 
tire lives, as their forefathers in both lines 
of ancestry had done for many generations. 
Mrs. Ward died in Bloomington, in 1892, 
leaving eight children, all of whom are liv- 
ing. They are Margaret A., Mary, Thomas 
R., Emma Elizabeth, John M., George Henry, 
Abram and Peter Rastus. Mr. Ward con- 
tracted a second marriage in November, 
1898, being united on this occasion with Mrs. 
Harriet (Welker) Thompson, a daughter of 
Jacob and Angelina (Lesh) Welker, natives 
of Nauvoo, 111., and she was born at North 
Willard, Box Elder county, Utah. 

JAMES W. WEBSTER. 

This prosperous stockman and progressive 
citizen of Fremont county, Idaho, descends 
from an old English family whose ancestry 
is lost in the mists of antiquity. Indeed, it is 
positively asserted by some genealogists that 
it was a prominent race before, the Norman 
Conquest of 1066. Be that as it may, the name 
has been carried by men of eminence in Eng- 
land and America, its most prominent Ameri- 
can representatives being the great orator and 
statesman, Daniel Webster, and the great lexi- 
cographer, Noah Webster. In his particular 
sphere, place and period of existence, the hon- 
ored father of James W. Webster was also an 
eminent and distinguished person. His name 
was William L. Webster, and he was born in 
Bradford, England, where, learning the trade 
of shoemaking, he was for years the competent 



foreman of the large London shops of the Wil- 
sons. 

Coming to America he landed at Boston, on 
March 26, 1857, and soon thereafter formed a 
partnership with a Mr. Stack in the shoe busi- 
ness, and, in May, 1859, he married with Miss 
Emma Whaley. Leaving Boston for Utah in 
May, i860, he crossed the plains with Capt. 
Jesse Murphy's company of ox teams, and he 
worked at his trade in Salt Lake City. In 1870 
he established a boot, shoe and harness store at 
Franklin, to which he added a small stock of 
merchandise purchased on credit in 1877. Dur- 
ing the construction of the Utah Northern 
Railroad he moved his stock of goods, first to 
Oneida, now Arimo, Idaho, and in 1879 to 
Eagle Rock and to Beaver Canyon, returning, 
however, to Franklin in the fall of 1879, en- 
gaging in an extensive trade, and to accommo- 
date its demands he built a large two-story 
rock store, 30x60 feet in size, costing $5,000, 
continuing in successful merchandising until 
1889, when all of the merchants of the town 
consolidated, forming the Oneida Mercantile 
Union, Mr. Webster sacrificing his own busi- 
ness to perfect the union. 

A zealous Mormon, at the organization of 
the Oneida stake, he, who before this had been 
an elder, was ordained a member of the high 
council, and was also set apart as superintend- 
ent of Sunday schools, with Isaac B. Nash and 
Thomas Thorpe as assistants. He was elected 
to the Idaho Legislature in 1880 on the Peo- 
ple's ticket and in 1882 was chosen as a mem- 
ber of the council, his services being so appre- 
ciated that he was elected to the same position 
for a second term. On account of his religion 
he was opposed by the majority of his associ- 
ates, but his winning personality served him in 
good stead, making many his friends who were 
unfriendly to Mormonism. In 1884 he was 
again placed in candidacy for councilman, but 
the pressure and demands of his personal af- 



458 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



fairs caused his resignation from the ticket. 
After a well-spent and highly profitable life, 
his death occurred at Franklin, Idaho, on April 
7, 1899, at tr, e age of sixty-four years, while 
the mother is still residing at the old Franklin 
home, having passed sixty-eight years of an 
active and useful existence. 

James W. Webster, a son of the above men- 
tioned parents, was born at Franklin, Idaho, on 
November 29, 1862, and, passing his early 
years in useful industry in the various depart- 
ments of his father's diversified operations, he 
acquired a basic knowledge of business princi- 
ples and financial operations assisting his 
father until he was twenty-three years 
old, and thereafter he not only aided in 
the mercantile affairs of his father, but en- 
gaged in ranching for a period of seven years, 
when, in October, 1892, he formed an associ- 
ation with a brother-in-law. W. H. Smart, and 
engaged in sheepraising operations of cumula- 
tive importance at Franklin, which they con- 
tinue with financial prosperity and success, dur- 
ing the past nine years shipping yearly from 
fifty to ninety carloads of sheep, but on account 
of the shortage of range they have this year re- 
duced the amount of their stock. 

Mr. Webster now resides at Rexburg, 
where he has lived since 1896, the two previ- 
ous years having been passed on the fertile 
ranch on Egin bench, and he is now the man- 
ager of the Wood River Live Stock Co., cf 
Wyoming, an office to which he was recently 
chosen. One of the eminently practical and 
progressive men of the county, his advice is 
sought and followed to advantage in many af- 
fairs of financial and industrial importance, and 
he is the vice-president of the Rexburg Prod- 
uce Co., a stockholder in and vice-president of 
the Rexburg Banking Co. He is the president 
of the Rexburg Milling Co., the Thomas Cloth- 
ing Co., and the Rexburg Drug Co. It speaks 
well for the executive ability, judgment and 



wise discrimination of Mr. Webster when we 
realize that he started in business but ten short 
years ago with a mere nominal capital, which 
his shrewd manipulation of the stock possibili- 
ties of this portion of the state has increased to 
financial independence, not one dollar of his 
wealth having come to him in any other man- 
ner than through legitimate business channels. 
On December 6, 1886, Mr. Webster and 
Miss Mary Smart were wedded, she being a 
daughter of Thomas S. and Ann (Hater) 
Smart, natives of England, who, emigrating 
in early married life, made their home at St. 
Louis, Mo., later coming to Utah with one of 
the ox-train and handcart brigades, settling at 
Provo, Utah, and in 1878 removing to Frank- 
lin, Idaho, there locating a homestead of 160 
acres, the father being one of the founders of 
the town in April, i860. He was one of the 
foremost men in local affairs, assisted in the 
promotion of local industries, canals, roads, 
bridges and public buildings. As a captain of 
the minute-men he was often in peril from In- 
dian attacks and was often engaged in battle 
with them. One of the features of his life was 
the assistance he was called to give to incom- 
ing parties of Mormon settlers, and in this 
good labor he made one trip entirely across the 
plains to bring in a party of saints. Of a sensi- 
tive and refined temperament, he was ever a 
friend to the unfortunate and needy, and was 
not lacking in spiritual gifts. Believing thor- 
oughly in the counsels and inspiration of Brig- 
ham Young, he was one of his able support- 
ers, holding with rare and consecrated ability 
the offices of elder, member of the Seventies, 
high priest and high counsellor in the united 
stake of Zion, and, after a life well-filled with 
good deeds, his death occurred at Franklin, 
on April 18. 1902, in his seventy-seventh year. 
Both himself and wife await the resurrection 
in the little family cemetery on the Franklin 
homestead. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



459 



Mr. Webster has always supported the Re- 
publican ticket, but has steadily resisted all at- 
tempts to secure him an official place. In the 
Church of Latter Day Saints he has been called 
to various places of importance, deacon, teacher, 
elder, in 1901 to that of high counsellor for six 
months, when he was made the second coun- 
sellor to Pres. Thomas E. Ricks, upon whose 
death he was chosen to his present office, the 
first counsellor to Pres. Thomas E. Bassett. Mr. 
and Mrs. Webster have a family of highly in- 
teresting children, namely: James S., born May 
9, 1887 ; Elma, born April 14, 1889 ; Vida, born 
January 3, 1892; Kenneth, born October 7, 
1895, and Lucile, born January 31, 1899. The 
family is a notable one in social circles. 

GEORGE WEDEKIND. 

The "sturdy and intellectual citizens of the 
Great West who' have sprung from German 
ancestors have been most important factors 
in developing and maintaining the best forms 
of civilization in the localities where Dame 
Fortune has ordered their residence. Strongly 
appreciative of practical values, and in- 
tensified by an inheritance of the scientific and 
intellectual qualities of the best German 
scholarship, they have been panoplied by edu- 
cation and have given most valuable service 
in all forms of business and all classes of so- 
ciety, making their forceful yet cultured per- 
sonalities centers of the progress of the en- 
tire community. To these people the Rocky 
Mountain region is under a great indebted- 
ness. 

Conspicuously numbered among the lead- 
ing citizens of southeastern Idaho, where he 
owns a handsome and highly productive es- 
tate of 480 acres in the attractive and fertile 
Conant Valley, George Wedekind fully dis- 
plays in his life and multiform activities the 
finest qualities of the German race although 



his birthplace was in America. He was born 
on February 12, 1872, at Lebanon, Pa., a 
son of the Rev. A. C. and Evelina (Raig- 
nal) Wedekind, his father receiving- in his 
youth most excellent educational advantages 
in his native Germany and thereafter com- 
ing to the United States and to Pennsylvania, 
where he was long the settled pastor of the 
Lutheran church of Lebanon. By his pious ex- 
ample, his dignified, wise and eloquent pre- 
sentation of the teachings of the Scriptures, 
and his devout and most unselfish spirit, he 
received the abiding confidence, veneration 
and love of his parishioners and the profound 
respect of the community, his qualifications 
for effective spiritual leadership being so 
marked that he ultimately became the revered 
and highly successful pastor of the leading 
Lutheran church of New York City, where he 
continued to. labor with great acceptability 
until he reached the age where he deemed 
it the. part of wisdom to retire from active 
service, and his closing years were passed in 
California, where, in 1894, at the age of 
seventy-three years, at National City, he 
passed on to' those activities that have no 
weariness, having lived a life of especial in- 
fluence to his fellow men. His wife, whose 
loving loyalty and devotion had been con- 
spicuous factors in his usefulness, was born 
at Annvill, Pa., the daughter of Henry and 
Catherine Raignal, and her death occurred 
in 1898 at National City, Calif., at the age of 
sixty-four years. 

George Wedekind received his prelimi- 
nary educational instruction in the excellent 
schools of New York City, thereafter receiv- 
ing an appointment as a student of the United 
States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., 
from which celebrated educational institution 
he was graduated in 1892, soon afterwards 
resigning from the naval service to continue 
his studies in a post-graduate course at the 



460 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



University of the City of New York. Thus 
fully fortified and equipped for the practical 
duties of life, Mr. Wedekind came west in 
1893. and has since been connected with 
varying occupations of scope and importance, 
and during the Spanish-American war he held 
the commission of first lieutenant in the Third 
United States Cavalry, the historic "Rough 
Riders." with which he served throughout 
the war. 

After retiring from military life he came 
to Bingham county. Idaho, and formed the 
nucleus of his present estate by purchasing 
240 acres of fertile land in the very heart of 
the finest portion of Conant Valley, lying only 
one mile distant from Lyons postomce. and 
from that period his identification with the in- 
dustrial activities of the county have been 
complete. He engaged in cattleraising, 
which he has since conducted in that intelli- 
gent manner that is sequeled by success, and, 
as the cumulative demands of his rapidly in- 
creasing operations made it imperative, he 
has added to his landed property by the pur- 
chase of 240 other acres. In addition to his 
deeded land, he controls a wide range, on 
which he is running fine herds of graded and 
thoroughbred Hereford cattle, meeting- a pro- 
nounced success as a stockman. In addition 
to this realty, in January. 1903, he purchased 
a partly improved ranch of 160 acres in the 
Swan A^alley. His interests are not fully cen- 
tered in this department of the state's great 
industries, for he owns and controls the Co- 
nant Valley ferry and has promising holdings 
in copper and other mines and prospects. Mr. 
Wedekind possesses superior business ability, 
sound judgment and spotless integrity. His 
Idaho career has been most flattering in its 
financial aspect, while in the community of 
his residence he has the confidence of all. and 
in a much larger area his name is synon- 
ymous with fair dealing, courteous manners 



and inflexible honesty, being reckoned as one 
of the "first citizens" of the state. 

LEWIS A. WEST. 

The progressive men of the Great West 
who were born in this section of the Union 
may be justly entitled to the designation of pio- 
neers, for all of their lives have been passed 
amid the stirring events and undeveloped con- 
ditions with which civilization has had to battle 
in bringing the country into a prosperous and 
profitable state. And among these men we must 
reckon Lewis A. West, who has ever been in 
touch with the changing progress and transi- 
tion from a sagebrush wilderness into a wholly 
rounded civilized section, governed by law and 
order and influenced by a marvelous and re- 
markable religious activity. Growing up as he 
has amidst this progress, he has here found am- 
ple scope for his rare energy, quickness of 
thought and wonderful versatility, and, record- 
ing the lives and activities of the representative 
business men of Pocatello. Bannock county, a 
a well-defined space must be given to him. He 
was born in Ogden. L T tah. on September 4, 
1859, a son of L. A. and Elizabeth (Baker) 
West, the father being a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and the mother of London. England. His 
paternal grandfather, Ira West, resided in Xew 
York state and was a descendant of energetic 
progenitors who came to the American colo- 
nies in the early days of the country, the fam- 
ily in each generation from that time always 
occupying a place at the front of pioneer move- 
ments. The father, a veteran of the Mexican 
Avar, thereafter crossed the plains to California 
as one of the Argonauts of 1849. From there 
he came to Utah in 185 1 and long conducted 
freighting operations between Ogden and Vir- 
ginia City. He was a man of great force of 
character and held with capability the responsi- 
ble office of sheriff of Weber countv for a num- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



461 



ber of years previous to his death, which oc- 
curred in 1870, at the early age of thirty-seven. 
The mother was a daughter of Walter and 
Ann) Baker, her father being a locomotive en- 
gineer, who met his death in a railroad acci- 
dent in his native land of England, the wid- 
owed mother coming to Utah in 1859 with her 
family and bringing the first piano of the ter- 
ritory. The subject of this review was bur 
eight years of age at the death of his father, 
and from this early period the responsibility of 
the care and support of the family largely de- 
pended upon him, and in consequence thereof 
his opportunity for attending schools was ex- 
ceedingly limited, his earnest desire for an ed- 
ucation being only satisfied by study during his 
hours of labor at night. Until he was nine- 
teen years of age he was engaged in different 
occupations, loyally devoting his wages to the 
fort of his family; then he became identified 
with the buying and selling of hides and wools, 
in which trend of commercial activity he trav- 
eled extensively through south Idaho, Wyo- 
ming and parts of Utah. In March, 1884, he 
located at Pocatello, mere founding the branch 
of M. C. Silva Hide & Wood Co., of which 
he was the efficient and capable manager until 
1888, when the Pocatello house was closed. 
Pleased with his location, and being well aware 
of the advantages of Pocatello as a business 
center and place of residence, he then estab- 
lished the Pocatello Lumber and Furniture Co., 
which under his successful management .con- 
tinued in operation until 1893, when, on ac- 
count of the disastrous panic which swept over 
the country, he lost all of the results of his 
successful years of operations, losing $46,000 
because he could not raise $3,000. Commenc- 
ing again at the bottom, he went to work for 
wages for the Oregon Short Line Railroad Co., 
with which he was identified until 1896, and, 
on retiring from its service, he was presented 
with unsolicited letters of recommendations, 



and accepted a position with the Idaho Furni- 
ture Co., with which he. was engaged for two 
years' time. On January 1, 1898, he again 
established himself in the trade in his present 
line of business, later removing his location to 
the present central one on the corner of Center 
and Arthur streets and here he has been pros- 
pered, and by his financial ability and his intui- 
tive knowledge of the laws of trade, acquiring 
a rapidly increasing patronage among the rep- 
resentative people of the county. His business 
interests are not confined to trade, for he is 
quite extensively connected with mining oper- 
ations, having an interest in a number of prom- 
ising claims and being the president of the Fort 
Hall Mining & Milling Co., of Pocatello, being 
considered a man of shrewd judgment, wise 
prudence and alert to the comprehension of af- 
fairs and great financial ability. 

Mr. West is a prominent factor not only in 
business, but in all the departments of social 
life and endeavors of the community. In 1891 
he was elected school trustee and was chairman 
of the board which built the present commodi- 
ous, attractive and suitable school building, but 
as this did not meet the public idea of expen- 
ditures in a structure, the entire board was re- 
tired from office at the next election. Mr. 
West was one of the first trustees of the town 
and its first town clerk. In national politics be 
espouses the cause of the Republican party, but 
in municipal elections he supports the candi- 
date he deems the best qualified for the office, 
irrespective of political affiliations. He is 
deeply interested in the growth and success of 
the town and county, an active worker in all 
departments of its progress and a liberal sup- 
porter of every movement tending to its ad- 
vancement. Fraternally Mr. West is a mem- 
ber of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is 
at present the supreme representative and was 
its grand chancellor in 1895 and 1896. He is 
also connected with the Masonic society, of 



462 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



which he is a valued member, and in the Be- 
nevolent and Protective Order of Elks he is a 
prominent member and is also affiliated with 
the Modern Woodmen of the World. 

Mr. West was married in Utah, on Novem- 
ber 23, 1881, with Miss Isabelle Ballantyne, a 
native of Utah and a daughter of Richard and 
Sarah (Clark) Ballantyne, natives of New 
York, the paternal grandfather being an emi- 
grant from Scotland. Richard Ballantyne was 
a man of great force of character and religious 
sentiment, being the first person to organize 
a Sunday school in Utah, of which he was 
among the earliest pioneers of the Mormon 
church. Mr. and Mrs. West have had five chil- 
dren : Lewis A., Isabelle, died in infancy, 
Richard B., Erie E. and Eugene. The family 
stands high in the community and their hos- 
pitable residence at 231 South Cleveland ave- 
nue is a center of courteous hospitality, 
while his family is rich in the possession of 
those qualities which endear them to the best 
people and are numbered among the valued 
citizens of Bannock county. 

HENRY B. WHITMAN. 

Numbered among the distinctive, pro- 
gressive, successful and representative men 
who by their life's endeavors and business 
qualifications throw luster not only upon the 
city and county of their residence, but upon 
the entire state, we must number H. B. Whit- 
man, a prominent merchant of Montpelier, 
Idaho, who descends from one of the best 
strains of New England ancestry, his first 
American forefather, John Whitman, being 
one of the earliest settlers of the old town of 
Weymouth in the Plymouth colony, emigrat- 
ing thither from England in 1636. John 
Whitman had three sons, Thomas, born in 
England in 1629, became one of the earliest 
settlers of Bridgewater, Mass., and the fam- 



ily name is preserved in the brick manufactur- 
ing town of Whitman, in Plymouth county. 
Mass. 

Mr. Whitman, the subject of this review, 
was born in Whiteside county. 111., on 
August 31, 1868, being a son of Edwin C. and 
Florence H. (Sampson) Whitman, natives re- 
spectively of Massachusetts and of Maine. 
The father was a representative type of the 
sturdy pioneer, coming to old Fort Dearborn, 
now Chicago, when the citizens of the little 
hamlet could almost be numbered on the fingers 
of a man's hand, and becoming a pioneer 
farmer of Whiteside county. 111., later driving 
stage for Frink & Walker from Chicago be- 
fore the sound of the locomotive whistle had 
ever been heard in that incipient metropolis. 
He is a veteran of the Civil war, performing 
distinguished service under Gen. Winfield S. 
Hancock in the Ninth Missouri Cavalry, and, 
being the veterinary surgeon of that regi- 
ment, accompanving that organization 
through many perilous experiences, hard- 
ships and privations, and in many well-con- 
tested battles and engagements. He is still 
residing in Y\ 'hiteside county at the venerable 
age of eighty-five years, with remarkable 
vigor of mind and body for his advanced age. 

This venerable pioneer was the father of 
five children: Elizabeth M., now the wife of 
Hon. John L. Underwood, the popular post- 
master of Montpelier; Marcus F., now the 
efficient county school superintendent of Bear 
Lake county; Carrie B.. wife of W. L. Lane, 
chief clerk in the general manager's office of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad at Houston, 
Tex.; Henry B.. the subject of this review; 
Edwin D.. a pioneer merchant of Soda 
Springs. For further particulars of the 
family ancestry we refer the reader to the 
sketch of Edwin D. Whitman, elsewhere in 
this volume. 

Henry B. Whitman, in 1S83, when but 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



463 



fifteen years of age, had acquired such a 
proficiency in his studies and knowledge of 
business that he began his long connection 
with mercantile pursuits at that time by ac- 
cepting a clerical position with a mercantile 
establishment at Soda Springs, where for 
three years and seven months he diligently 
devoted himself to the discharge of the duties 
connected therewith, becoming thoroughly 
versed in the manners and methods appertain- 
ing to the conducting of successful merchan- 
dising, thence removing to Montpelier, Idaho, 
where he was connected with various oper- 
ations until 1889, when, for a short time, in 
association with a brother he was engaged in 
the drug business, thereafter being employed 
for one year on the railroad,, then returning to 
his first and real chosen vocation, merchandis- 
ing, in the employ of T. H. Lloyd, of Mont- 
pelier, there continuing until 1894, when he 
laid the foundation of his present mercantile 
operations by engaging in trade in the city 
of Montpelier, which merchandising has dis- 
tinctively grown with every step of the prog- 
ress of the county, and of the development of 
the city, until few establishments of like char- 
acter in the state excel it in the display of its 
merchandise or in the amount of sales; he is 
considered not only a typical business man, 
but a public-spirited citizen, who is ever in 
touch with, and ever responsive to every en- 
terprise of a local or general character that 
promises to build up the interests of the city, 
county and state, his mercantile stock con- 
sisting of a very complete and full line of 
general merchandise, clothing, furnishing 
goods and notions, staple and fancy groceries. 
In many and widely varying interests 
in other fields than merchandising, both 
financial and public, has the progressive en- 
terprise of Mr. Whitman led him to become 
a forceful factor and on the list of these are 
his interests in mining operations. 



A man of independent thought, well-read 
in the political history of the state and coun- 
try, we find Mr. Whitman warmly espoused 
to the cause of the Republican political party, 
with whose principles and policies he is most 
heartily in accord, loyally supporting its can- 
didates in its successive campaigns, and giv- 
ing all the force of his energetic nature to the 
accomplishment of its victories. In fraternal 
circles ' the same characteristics that have 
always made success and popularity in other 
fields have also made him prominent. He is 
a valued member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and for the last three years has 
been one of its trustees, taking a leading part 
also in the erection of their fine two-story 
stone hall in which his store and the post- 
office are located ; being also identified with 
the Woodmen of the World. 

On September 18, 1890, occurred a local 
event of more than passing notice in the wed- 
ding ceremony which united for life Miss 
Libbie G. Hunter and Mr. Whitman. Mrs. 
Whitman is a native of Iowa and a daugh- 
ter of J. L. and Anna E. (Walker) Hunter, 
the energetic proprietors of Hunter's Hotel, 
and to this marriage union have come three 
children : Grace, Mildred and Russell S. 

Bear Lake county has ever been favored 
in the personnel of its founders and builders, 
and from its earliest pioneer epoch to the pres- 
ent day there have been here found men of 
sterling character, animated by high prin- 
ciples conserving the general good through 
well-directed personal endeavors, and of this 
class Henry B. Whitman is a worthy and 
honored representative. 

ALEXANDER WEST. 

The historic land of Scotland, so favored 
in song, legend and story, has been one of 
the most generous of European countries to 



464 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



send her bold, hardy, adventurous and in- 
dustrious sons to contribute by their en- 
deavors to the reclamation of the great 
Rocky Mountain region of the American con- 
tinent from barbarism, and to aid in es- 
tablishing there the benefits and conditions of 
a cultured civilization. They have done their 
work well, and in every section, almost in 
every township, some place of distinctive 
prominence in social, professional or com- 
mercial activities is occupied by a "canny 
Scotsman." Fremont county, Idaho, can dem- 
onstrate the truthfulness of the above state- 
ment, for among her progressive and alert 
citizens are many who claim that stern land 
of the North as their birthplace. Among this 
number we are privileged to mention in this 
review Alexander West, the popular hotel 
proprietor and stockman, whose residence is 
in the Teton Basin, four miles northwest of 
Haden, which is his postoffice address. 

Mr. West was born in Benafy Parish, 
Scotland, on May 15, 1844, the son of David 
and Elizabeth (Sims) West, the ancestral 
tree of both paternal and maternal lines root- 
ing deep in Scottish generations of the long 
ago. The father passed his long and useful 
life as a miller and was principally located at 
Blairgowrie, where he died in 1887, at the 
age of eighty-six years. The mother was 
born at Stanlev. a daughter of James and 
Elizabeth Sims, her father pursuing the trade 
of a stone-mason, and also dying at the age 
of eighty-six, while she became the mother 
of seven children, dying in 1886 at an ad- 
vanced age. 

Alexander West was educated at the ex- 
cellent national schools of his native land and 
aided in the support of the paternal home 
by his industrious labor until he attained the 
age of twenty-one years, when he enlisted in 
the British army, in this service being sent to 
Gibraltar and after four months at this post. 



he was, during the Fenian raids, sent to 
Montreal, Canada, arriving there on July 23, 
1861, continuing on garrison duty at that 
city until he had served in all two years and 
118 days, when, on April 15, 1869, he received 
an honorable discharge. He immediately 
thereafter turned his attention to carpentry, 
at which he wrought in Montreal until the 
spring of 1873. when he determined to take 
advantage of the opportunities he learned 
were awaiting the diligent seeker in the far- 
off West, and made his way to Virginia City. 
New, where he found plentiful and profitable 
employment at his trade, continuing his labors 
in that place until 1880. when he removed to 
Palisade, where he was employed in the 
Eureka & Palisade Railroad shops for a year, 
thereafter going to Carlin. where, employed 
by the Central Pacific Railroad in its shops, 
he abode four years and until he came to 
Bingham county, Idaho, in 1885. 

Passing the winter at Idaho Falls, then 
Eagle Rock, he proceeded next to Camas for 
a three-years residence, subsequently return- 
ing to Eagle Rock, where he remained until 
1893, when he became a citizen of Fremont 
county, establishing himself as an architect 
and builder at St. Anthony, being concerned 
in the erection of the best structures erected 
there at that time, thereafter being at Rex- 
burg and Lewisville. where he now owns a 
house and lot, in the spring of 1897 coming 
to his present location and filing a home- 
stead claim on 160 acres of land, where he 
has since been engaged in stockraising and 
has built a much-needed hotel and feed stable, 
all of which industries he has since conducted 
with such skill and wise judgment as to prove 
them to be valuable financial investments and 
to add to the good opinion his many friends 
already entertained of him. 

By his first marriage, on March 17. 1869, 
at Montreal. Canada, which was terminated 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



465 



by a divorce, Mr. West has two brilliant and 
finely educated daughters, Elizabeth, born 
August 4, 1872, and Isabella, born Novem- 
ber 6, 1876, now bookkeeper in San Fran- 
cisco, both now residents of Oakland, Calif. 
There were two other children, a son 
named David, born on July 23, 1870, died at 
twenty-four years of age, and an infant boy, 
deceased. On January 18, 1893, Mr. West 
formed a matrimonial alliance with Mrs. Eva 
M. (Almy) George, the widow of Roland 
George and a native of Michigan, and the 
family circle of Mr. West now contains be- 
sides himself and wife, the two children of 
her former marriage, Elizabeth and Dallis. 

E. D. WHITMAN. 

Edwin D. Whitman, now an enterprising 
and popular merchant of the thriving' town of 
Soda Springs, Idaho, where in his extensive 
and well-arranged store he displays an excel- 
lent line of furnishing goods for ladies and gen- 
tlemen, furniture, carpets, etc., is a native of 
Whiteside, 111., where he was born on April 2, 
1873, of old-time Puritan New England stock, 
he being a son of Edwin C. and Florence H. 
(Sampson) Whitman, natives respectively of 
Massachusetts and Maine, and early pioneers 
of the state of Illinois. His father settled in 
1844 at Fort Dearborn, then the only trace of 
civilization on the site of the magnificent me- 
tropolis of Chicago and where he drove stage 
and a peddling wagon before there was any 
railroad in that state or section of the coun- 
try. He later engaged in farming and in 
freighting operations and is now, at the hale 
old age of eighty-five years, retired from active 
business and maintaining his home at Como, 
Whiteside county. 111. His wife, however, 
had preceded him as a pioneer of Illinois, com- 
ing thither with her parents in 1839, being the 
first American resident of Whiteside, and hav- 
ing now attained her seventieth year. 



The family were residents of the old town 
of Bridgewater, Mass., where they waxed 
great in wealth and importance, having many 
distinctive representatives in each generation, 
and where the family name is perpetuated in 
the beautiful manufacturing village of Whit- 
man, in Plymouth county, the subject of this 
review being also a relative of Marcus Whit- 
man, a celebrated resident of Oregon. 

After his education in the district schools 
of his native state and at the age of eighteen 
years, Mr. Whitman identified himself with 
Soda Springs, the place of his present resi- 
dence, serving as clerk in various mercantile 
departments for a period of seven years, and 
then, having demonstrated his capability to un- 
derstand and thoroughly conduct the financial 
operations necessary to complete success in 
merchandising, in the spring of 1902 he erected 
a large building on the corner of Dillon and 
Second streets, South, and placed therein a 
well-selected and large stock of goods, as here- 
tofore mentioned. 

The success and distinction that has already 
attended his operations demonstrate that it is 
a cumulative one and will at no far-distant pe- 
riod become of large scope and importance, as 
the genial proprietor, through his conduct, 
courtesy and winning ways, has attracted al- 
ready a large patronage, while the quality of 
his goods is of such excellence that "once a 
patron always a patron." Fraternally Mr. 
Whitman is identified with the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows and has held various offices 
in the lodge with great acceptability. He is ac- 
tively interested in all public matters of a local 
interest and has served the interests of the 
people as a member of the city council. 

On January 1, 1895, occurred the wedding 
rites of Miss Alberta Marriott with Mr. Whit- 
man, she being a native of Utah, and a daugh- 
ter of John and Alberta Marriott, pioneers of 
Utah and of English descent. The family cir- 
cle of Mr. Whitman is completed by two win- 



466 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



some children : Edwin C. and Charles R. So- 
cially the family stand in the highest rank of 
society circles and in their attractive residence 
maintain a bounteous hospitality. 

WILLIAM L. WIDDISON. 

Among the early emigrants who made 
their home in Salt Lake City were some of the 
best technically educated workmen to be found 
in America, craftsmen whose skill it would be 
a difficult task to equal and rarely could it be 
excelled, and among the number of these skilled 
artisans must be mentioned the father of the 
subject of this review, Thomas Widdison, who 
was a skillful filemaker for years at Sheffield, 
England, where his reputation in this line was 
well established and extended. Embracing the 
doctrines of the Mormon church he emigrated 
in 1854, coining direct to Salt Lake City, where 
for years thereafter he was the only person 
having a knowledge of his trade in all Utah, 
and he found ample business to occupy his time 
during his active life, dying at the age of 
three score and ten years, on May 27, 1872, 
being survived by the mother of William L. 
Widdison, who continued her residence in Salt 
Lake City until her death in 189 1, when she 
was also seventy years of age. 

The youngest of the five children of 
Thomas and Jeannette (Russell) Widdison. the 
gentleman whom we now have under review 
was born in Lancashire, Scotland, on Septem- 
ber 21, 1846, the father being of English birth 
and the mother of Scottish ancestry. From 
early childhood William assisted his father in 
filecutting, and in Utah was early called into 
service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- 
ter Day Saints, crossing the plains five times 
with ox teams to bring immigrants to Salt Lake 
City. He was a member of the Third Regi- 
ment of the Nauvoo Legion of Utah, and was 
himself detained bv Federal soldiers from Camn 



Douglas, remaining, however, in service until 
the troops were disbanded by order of Brigham 
Young. 

In 1889 he came to Rexburg. and used his 
homestead right on forty acres on Teton 
Island, where he has developed a fine home. 
He was one of the prime movers in the organi- 
zation of the principal irrigation canals and has 
cheerfully and fully done his full share in all 
public and private matters that were in the in- 
terest of the welfare of the community. He 
has been a Mormon from his birth, was or- 
dained an elder when he was twenty years old, 
and is now an incumbent of that office, while, 
since the organization of the Teton ward Sun- 
day school, he has been its popular and efficient 
superintendent. 

The marriage of Mr. Widdison with Miss 
Mary Alice Wilding occurred at Salt Lake, on 
December 23, 1872, her parents being George 
and Mary E. (Lane) Wilding, the father, a na- 
tive of England, coming to Missouri, where his 
marriage was consummated, soon thereafter 
crossing the plains to Salt Lake City, where he 
has followed the stonecutter's trade for many 
years, having now arrived at seventy years of 
life, and the mother being fifty-seven. Seven 
children have come to bless the home of Mr. 
and Mrs. Widdison, William, Robert. Florence 
J-. Abner M., Rosa, Rachel and Ella Leah. 

JOHN K. WHITNEY. 

The first American ancestor of this fam- 
ilv was John Whitney, the son of Thomas 
Whitney, "Gentleman." and his wife, Mary 
Brav. He was a descendant of a long line of 
one of the most distinguished families in the 
West of England, members of this particular 
branch being knighted, one by Queen Mary 
in 1553 and one by Queen Elizabeth in 1570. 
In April, 1635, John Whitney registered, with 
his wife, Elinor, and sons. John, Richard. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



467 



Nathaniel, Thomas and Jonathan, as a pas- 
senger on the sailing vessel "Elizabeth and 
Ann," Roger Cooper, master, and the fam- 
ily were landed at Boston in June of that year, 
settling in Watertown in the same month. 
Here the father was granted eight lots and 
purchased sixteen, and this was his home 
until his death on June 1, 1673. he holding 
also for long years the offices of selectman, 
town clerk and constable. The line from this 
first American Whitney to the John K. Whit- 
ney, of Rexburg, Idaho, the special subject 
of this review, is John (1), John (2), Nathan- 
iel (3), Nathaniel (4), Samuel (5), Samuel 
(6), Samuel (7), Newel K. (8), John K. S. (9), 
John K. (10). 

Beyond these ancestors the lineage con- 
tinues to Normandy, previous to the battle of 
Hastings in 1066, and through two of the 
early intermarriages John Whitney could 
claim blood relationship with all of the rulers 
of England from William the Conqueror to 
Edward I. The surname Whitney was not 
taken until surnames came into vogue in the 
Twelfth Century, when a descendant of the 
Norman Prince Tuestin the Fleming made 
his home on his estate at Whitney on the 
River Wye. He assumed for his surname the 
name of the town and his descendants have 
all carried it. The American forebears of John 
K. Whitney made their homes in Watertown, 
Weston and Grafton, Mass., until Captain 
Samuel (6) removed to Shrewsbury in 1763, 
where he lived until 1772, when he settled per- 
manently at Marlboro, Vt. His son, Samuel 
(7), born in Marlboro on April 18, 1772, mar- 
ried Susan Kimball on April 7, 1792. About 
ten years later they removed to western 
New York, where they were living in 1830, 
where they became very early members of the 
Mormon church. They followed the leaders 
to the church headquarters at Kirtland, Ohio, 
where they lived for the rest of their days, the 
father dying in February, 1846. 



Newel Kimball Whitney (8), son of 
Samuel (7) and Susan (Kimball) Whitney, 
was born in Marlboro, Vt., on February 5, 
1795. In early life his energy and business 
push drew him from the paternal roof, and at 
nineteen years of age he was an army sutler 
at Plattsburg, N. Y., on the west shore of 
Lake Champlain. On September 14, 1814, 
the town was attacked by the British, Newel 
being one of the defending troops. With the 
loss of most of his property, he went as an 
Indian trader to Green Bay, Wis., where his 
life was saved by an Indian maiden, 
Modalena, from a deadly assault by an in- 
furiated member of her tribe. From Green 
Bay he went to Painesville, Ohio, entered the 
employ of a merchant named Gilbert, and, 
not long thereafter, was a member of the 
mercantile house of Gilbert & Whitney at 
Kirtland. Here, on October 20, 1822, he 
married with Elizabeth Ann Smith, a native 
of Connecticut. Early in 1831 the Mormon 
church made its headquarters at Kirtland, and 
in December of that year Newel K. Whitney, 
who had joined the church in 1830, became its 
second bishop. Prominent in church affairs, 
he remained in Kirtland after the migration 
to Misso-uri to close up its interests, until 1838, 
when he started for the West. At St. Louis 
he learned of the expulsion of the people of his 
faith from Missouri, temporarily located his 
family at Carrollton, 111., and returned to at- 
tend to other business at Kirtland. He 
went to Nauvoo soon after the founding of 
the city, and at the first municipal' election, 
held in February, 1841, he was chosen an 
alderman. 

Mr. Whitney and his wife Avere among the 
closest friends of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 
and it was to Bishop Whitney's hands that 
the original revelation on plural marriage 
was intrusted and a copy of it, taken under 
the Bishop's direction, was the one handed by 
him to President Brigham Young- at Winter 



468 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Quarters in 1846 or 1847, and from which the 
first publication was made. After Joseph 
Smith's death in June, 1844. Brigham Young 
became the leader of the Latter Day Saints. 
Under him they commenced their exodus to 
the Rocky Mountains in February. 1X4(1. 
The succeeding winter was passed on the Mis- 
souri River, where they founded Winter 
Quarters, now Florence, Neb. Bishop Whit- 
ney was with his people in their primitive 
prairie settlements among the Indians, pre- 
paring for the long journey in the spring of 
1847. Among the 142 men who accompanied 
President Young in that first historic com- 
pany were two sons of Bishop Whitney, Hor- 
ace K. and Orson K., Bishop Whitney re- 
maining behind to have oversight of the large 
numbers yet camping on the Missouri. In 
1X48 he also made the tedious journey across 
the plains and was made tlie first presiding 
bishop of the church in Utah. During the 
short two years of his life in Utah, for his 
death occurred on September 28, 1850, he 
labored assiduously in the colonization of 
Utah and in the building of Salt Lake City. 
"He left a spotless name, and thousands to 
mourn the loss of such a valuable man." 
Elizabeth Ann Whitney, who shared with her 
husband the notable experiences of those sad. 
strange and historic days, was born on De- 
cember 26, 1800. and died on February 17, 
1882. She was a counsellor to Emma Smith, 
the president of the Relief Society, organized 
in Nauvoo in 1842. and, like her husband, was 
highly venerated by the church. His second 
wife. Emmeline B. Woodward, in 1852 mar- 
ried with Daniel H. Wells. 

John Kimball Smith Whitney (9). son of 
Xewel K. and Elizabeth A. (Smith) Whitney, 
born on September 13, 1832. at Kirtland, 
Ohio, accompanied his father's family in all 
of its migrations until it was safely located in 
Salt Lake City. He married on December 10, 



1856, Ann Longstroth, daughter of George 
and Ann Longstroth who was born at Kirt- 
land, Ohio, on July 15, 1837. and came to 
Utah in Captain Hancock's brigade. To them 
were born nine children. Newel K. ; John K. : 
Ann E., wife of G. X". Sanders, of Mendon, 
Utah; James H. : Marion, wife of E. W. 
Dunn, of Brigham City. Utah ; Luella. wife 
of E. S. Kimball, of Logan. Utah; Bradley, 
deceased; Herbert and Edmerica. Mr. Whitney 
went back three times to aid the incoming im- 
migrants of the handcart brigades. He was 
the first in Utah to held the office of sheriff 
and held various other offices. After living 
for quite a number of years in Salt Lake City, 
about 1874 he removed to Mendon. his pres- 
ent residence, where he has conducted various 
agriqultural operations, prominent among 
them being - the raising of fine breeds of horses. 
Democratic in politics, he has never swayed 
from his principles. In the church he has 
been a consistent member all of his life. 

John K. Whitney (10). one of the earliest 
settlers of Rexburg. Idaho, and a well-known 
business man of Fremont county, a son of John 
K. S. and Ann (Longstroth) Whitney, was 
born in Salt Lake City on October 12. 1859. 
where bis early life was passed, the limited 
amount of schooling he was enabled to receive 
being mostly acquired at one winter's attend- 
ance at a private school and one winter under 
the instruction of O. F. Whitney. At the age 
of nineteen years he began his participation in 
business affairs for himself by entering the 
service of the Utah Northern Railroad in its 
construction department, continuing to be em- 
ployed in connection with grade and piledriv- 
ing work until the road was fully completed. 
His next occupation was aiding in the prelim- 
inary survey of the Oregon Short Line Rail- 
road through Idaho and into Oregon and on 
the branch running from Shoshone to Ketchum. 
Idaho. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



469 



Having well accomplished his work, in the 
fall of 1882, at Baker City, Ore., he closed his 
connection with railroading, and, returning 
home, he there remained until February, 1883, 
where he joined the band of heroic pioneers that 
first brought permanent civilization to the Rex- 
burg district of the Snake River Valley- Here 
he filed on a 160-acre tract of land adjoining 
Rexburg on the north, his being the first filing 
on government land in this part of the valley. 
In the little log cabin he erected on this claim, 
Mr. Whitney and the present President 
Thomas E. Bassett passed the first winter of 
the settlement. Taking hold of the improve- 
ment and development of his land with the per- 
sistent industry and energy so characteristic of 
the man. the irrigation problem was encoun- 
tered at the outset. He aided in the construc- 
tion of the first ditch taken out. holding the 
plow in turning the first furrow on the Rex- 
burg Irrigation Canal Co.'s canal, in which he 
was one of the first stockholders, having an ac- 
tive part also as a stockholder in the making 
of the Wolf Canal, the first canal to be recorded 
in Fremont county. 

On October 4, 1884, Mr. Whitney formed 
a pleasant and valuable marriage alliance with 
one of the active young ladies of the new settle- 
ment, Miss Mary J. Paul,, a daughter of Wal- 
ter and Ann (Walker) Paul, a sketch of whose 
lives and activities appear elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. The young couple were not exempt from 
the trials and discouragements that encom- 
passed the infant settlement, arising from the 
failure of crops and the ravages of insects, but 
they kept diligently at work, Mr. Whitney go- 
ing to Montana for three successive seasons, by 
his labors there in haying contracts acquiring 
the necessary funds to support the little family 
through the year. During the springs and falls 
he was busily occupied in his duties on the 
ranch. Farming life was not of sufficient scope 
for the far-reaching ambition of Mr. Whitney, 



so, in 1888, in a partnership association with 
Edmund Paul and Joseph Lloyd he 
opened a well-stocked livery stable in 
Rexburg. In 1900 he bought the in- 
terests of his partners and from that 
time until his sale of his extensive estab- 
lishment on February, 1904, he was one of the 
most active men of the city, being early and 
late at his labors, taking rank as the leading op- 
erator in his line of the whole upper valley. In 
this connection he has fitted out and conveyed 
many parties to the Jackson Hole country and 
to the National Park, and in 1892 he personally 
conducted a party of hunters from Mississippi 
into Jackson's Hole, the trip occupying four 
months and nineteen bears falling victims to 
their marksmanship. 

Mr. Whitney has given the full force of his 
strength and activity to business, allowing no 
political strife or aspiration to swerve him from 
this principal end, although standing up to be 
counted as a sterling Democrat and supporting 
Democratic candidates at the polls. He has 
never held or sought any office, either in public 
affairs or in the Mormon church, of which he 
is a member, but his best services have ever 
been given to the advocacy of all things tend- 
ing to improve his city, his county or the world 
at large. He is a member of the fraternal or- 
der of the Woodmen of the World and in social 
life stands high as an all-around good citizen, 
comrade and friend. He has had eight chil- 
dren, Franklin P. ; Leslie J. (deceased), and 
Sterling W., twins; Alice A., deceased; Del- 
pha : Vernia; Afton and Edmerica. 

MILFORD WILLIAMS. . 

Idaho is a young commonwealth, so her 
industrial and commercial activities are 
largely placed in the control of young men, 
many of them natives of the Great West, who 
constitute the virile and progressive element 



4/0 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



which makes for consecutive progress and 
substantial development and the increase of 
the commonwealth. Within the pages of this 
volume will be found pertinent and timely 
reference to man}' of the representative young 
business and professional men of the state, 
and at the present juncture it is our privilege 
to here enter specific record of one of the 
popular and capable factors in business life 
of the thriving city of Montpelier, Bear Lake 
county. 

Mr. Williams, the manager of the mer- 
cantile house of the Burgoyne Mercantile 
Co., of Montpelier, Idaho, was born in Peter- 
son, Utah, on October 3, 1865. as a son of 
Joshua and Annie (Coy) Williams, the father 
being a native of Wales and the mother of 
Liverpool, England. Identifying themselves 
with the Mormon church, the parents emi- 
grated in 1862, making the weary and deso- 
late journey across the plains, for so many 
years popularly known as the Great Ameri- 
can Desert, the father, after his arrival in 
Utah, engaging in business as a lumber mer- 
chant and also as a stockman. 

Possessing great activity and fearless- 
ness, he was an important factor in many 
phases of the development of the new land 
with which he had cast in his lot, being the 
first chief of the fire department of Ogden, 
Utah, and having thoroughly mastered the 
technicalities of a legal education and being 
admitted to the bar of Utah, he was a vigor- 
ous prosecuting attorney of Morgan county, 
L T tah. for six years, and, in all directions, he 
took an active part in civil and church af- 
fairs. He attained the age of sixty-seven 
years and died on November 21, 1900, long 
surviving his estimable wife, who died in 1876, 
at the age of thirty-nine years. 

The paternal grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch was James Williams, who with 
his wife was born and reared in South 



Wales, the father coming to Ogden, Utah, in 
1875 and after three years' residence return- 
ing to Liverpool, England, where he died in 
1883, being the father of eleven children, of 
whom three sons and four daughters are now 
fixing. 

Milford Williams, of this review, at the 
age of twelve years began the activities of life 
for himself, securing employment in a sash 
factory, and later he was identified with the 
operations of a hardware store and a sawmill 
until he was nineteen years of age, then, in 
1883, he came to Montpelier to take a clerical 
position in the mercantile establishment of 
Mr. Burgoyne, where relations continued 
most pleasantly, he here having demonstrated 
his marked executive ability as a salesman, 
until the spring of 1901. when the organiza- 
tion of the Burgoyne Mercantile Co. took 
place in which Mr. Williams owns an impor- 
tant interest and is the chief executive force 
and general manager of the business, being 
the dominating power in earning- the success 
and increasing the expansion of the important 
interests which cluster around the head- 
quarters of the company which he so ably 
represents. From its organization the com- 
pany has made large strides in increasing its 
operations and promises to become one of the 
leading mercantile factors of southeastern 
Idaho, commanding an unusually large trade. 
to which the business ability, tact and per- 
sonal popularity of Mr. Williams have been 
greatly helpful. 

Mr. Williams in his political adherency is 
stanchly arrayed in support of the Democratic 
political party, being also actively interested 
in all matters that tend to the development of 
the city, and he has served with advantage 
to the citv's interests for two years as a mem- 
ber of the city council, in both temporal and 
spiritual affairs showing a zeal and thor- 
oughness that bring him into pleasant re- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



47* 



lations, not only with the people of his home 
county, but wherever he may carry his oper- 
ations, for, as an active member of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in 1886 
and 1887 he most successfully conducted a 
mission to England and Scotland, bringing 
many converts to the cause of the church in 
whose behalf his energies were enlisted as 
an able and earnest worker. 

Mr. Williams, on January 1, 1889, 
wedded with Miss Sarah Burgoyne, a native 
of Montpelier, a daughter of Edward and 
Mary A. (Eynon) Burgoyne, natives of 
Wales and among the earliest pioneers of the 
city, being people of high character, holding 
an exalted position in the affairs and in the 
esteem of the community. Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
liams have had five children, namely : Gene- 
vieve ; Eugenia died in infancy ; Gwendolyn 
died February 27, 1903; Venus and Lois. 
Mr. Williams owns valuable real-estate in- 
terests in Montpelier, including his home, 
which is an attractive residence of modern 
architecture and design. 

AGARICH F. WILLIAMS. 

One of the progressive and capable busi- 
ness men of his section of the state, where he 
is conducting prosperous and cumulative farm- 
ing and live-stock industries, Mr. Williams has 
passed his entire life in the West, where his 
father had the distinction of being one of its 
honored pioneers. Lie was born on December 
20. 1857, at Brigham City, Utah, being a son 
of William and Mary (Jones) Williams, both of 
his parents being natives of Wales, where the 
family line stretches back in unbroken sequence 
for hundreds of years, William being a son of 
Daniel Williams, who accompanied the family 
emigration in 1853 to the promised land of 
Utah, where they were pronounced factors in 
its development, being among the sturdy pil- 



lars of the church and representative citizens of 
the community, having crossed the ocean and 
made the long journey across the plains that 
they might enjoy in their wilderness home the 
privilege of worshiping God according to the 
dictates of their conscience and free from mo- 
lestation. 

The grandfather died at Malad City, Idaho, 
and there lies buried. William Williams, a 
blacksmith by trade, passed the most of his life 
in Oneida county, Idaho, where he conducted 
hlacksmithing- until his death in 1898, at the 
age of seventy-five years. In the church he 
had been first counsellor for a number of years, 
and was a high priest at the time of his death. 
The mother was a daughter of Thomas and 
Ruth (Thomas) Jones, who accompanied her 
parents to Utah in one of the first emigrations, 
crossing the plains with a handcart brigade and 
settling first in Salt ■ Lake City, whence they 
removed to Hyrum, in the Cache Valley, there 
becoming industrious farmers and aiding 
largely in the development of that section until 
their deaths. The paternal grandmother of 
Mr. Williams was in maidenhood a Miss Ruth 
Jones, she being also a native of Wales. The 
parents of Mr. Williams had a family of thir- 
teen children, of whom the subject of this re- 
view is one of the youngest. 

Diligently devoting his time and attention 
with filial reverence to agricultural operations 
on the paternal homestead until he had attained 
the age of twenty-one, Mr. Williams com- 
menced the activities of life for himself as a 
farmer at Malad City, Idaho, for two years, 
then commencing freighting operations, which 
he conducted to various points, experi- 
encing some notable adventures, and, after 
ten years of ceaseless activity, relinquish- 
ing this occupation in 1888. He then 
located a desert claim, on which has 
since been his residence and where he has 
developed a well improved property and is de- 



472 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



voting his attention to farming and stockrais- 
ing. being a most prosperous citizen. His place 
is well-improved, and, in addition to his diver- 
sified farming, he pays especial attention to the 
raising of sheep, cattle and horses, his herd of 
Shorthorn cattle being of high grade and con- 
taining many valuable specimens of the breed. 
It was on March 4, 1887. that Mr. Wil- 
liams led to the marriage altar Miss Elizabeth 
Denning, she being a daughter of James and 
Sarah Denning. For particulars of her parents' 
life and ancestry we refer the reader to the in- 
dividual sketch of Dan Denning - , appearing on 
other pages of this work. Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
liams have had six children, namely: Azariah 
D., Elizabeth, Mary, Saraella, James and John. 
In his political belief Mr. Williams is in ac- 
cord with the Democratic political part)-, but 
lias not taken an active part and has never as- 
pired to political preferment, devoting his time 
and energies when not engaged in temporal em- 
ployments to advancing the interests of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, in which he holds 
the position of elder. He has labored earnestly 
in this connection and also in the cause of edu- 
cation, and no family in the county is held in 
higher esteem than that of the subject. 

JAMES ATHAY. 

One of the early pioneers of Paris. Bear 
Lake county, Idaho, where he has maintained 
his residence for nearly forty years, and occu- 
pying a most enviable place in the regards of 
the people, who hold him in distinctive honor 
as one of the first settlers and a leader in good 
works from the very day of his arrival, the 
many friends of James Athay will enjov the 
perusal of his eventful life which the memoir 
in this volume will furnish. Mr. Athay was 
born at Shipham, Somersetshire, England, on 
September 1. 1830, the grandson of Samuel 
and Mary (Phippen) Athay, and the son of 



Francis and Jane (Haires) Athay, who were 
representatives of old-time families of Eng- 
land, where their ancestors had passed their 
lives for many generations, both parents hav- 
ing closed their earthly career, the father, 
whose Hfework was mining, dying about ten 
years ago at the venerable age of ninety years, 
the mother passing away at an earlier period 
at the age of seventy-six. 

From the age of ten years Mr. James 
Athay was forced to battle with life on his 
own account, and whatever he has accomp- 
lished and whatever he has attained has been 
secured through his own efforts alone, being 
emphatically the architect of his own fortunes: 
by his exertions, and being self-taught, ac- 
quiring a solid'and valuable education. Going 
to London in 1840 he there apprenticed him- 
self to learn the whalebone trade, witli which 
he was identified in that city for twenty-one 
years. Under the effective teachings of de- 
voted missionaries of the Church of Latter 
Day Saints, Mr. Athay. in 1854, became inter- 
ested in the doctrines of that church, became 
one of its converts and at once, with his native 
energy, devoted himself in a great measure to 
the propagation of his belief, and was called 
to preside over the White Chapel Branch, of 
London. 

In 1864 he emigrated, that he might lie in 
closer connection with the leading people of his 
religion, and, coming to Paris, Idaho, he lo- 
cated on a farm where he has ever since re- 
sided, engaged in stockraising as well as farm- 
ing. At the time of his arrival there were but 
two or three buildings to mark the si^e of the 
thrifty county-seat, and the}' were rolled up 
with logs. From that early period there has 
been no one more active, no one more zealous, 
no one more efficient in the good deeds oi his 
church than Mr. Athay. In the winter of 
1864 and 1865 Mr. Athay. with William Ster- 
ritt. Moroni Green, Edwin Austin. John Hag- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



473 



ley, William Walmsley and others, con- 
structed the first dam ever placed in 
Bear Lake Valley, at Wardboro, over 
which the Oregon Short Line now crosses the 
river. For the long term of his residence here 
he has daily walked the streets of the city he 
helped to create, and malice nor envy has ever 
breathed one word against his character as a 
man, his religious consistency or the purity of 
his motives, and it is the wish of the entire 
community that he may be long spared in the 
land as one of the best specimens of the inde- 
pendent men who brought civilization to the 
sage-plains of Idaho. 

The first wife of Mr. Athay, Ellen (Mor- 
ris) Athay, a native of Wiltshire, England, 
died in Paris on November 24, 1893, leaving 
ten children, Henry, William. Marintha, Al- 
ice (deceased), Ellen, Louisa, Frank, Samuel, 
Asa and David. By his second wife, Mary 
(Lindsay) Athay, he has one daughter. Agnes. 
Mrs. Athay was born in Kay's ward, Utah, 
a daughter of William and Amelia (Blackman) 
Lindsay, who, coming from Canada, first set- 
tled in Wisconsin and, in an earlv day came to 
Utah, where they passed their lives until death 
called them to their reward and rest. 

JOSEPH B. BISTLINE. 

Among the representative business men not 
only of Pocatello but of Bannock county, 
Idaho, where he is now in business in the lum- 
ber trade, having - large and well-supplied lum- 
ber yards, located on East Center street, near 
the courthouse, is Joseph B. Bistline, a native 
of Pennsylvania, where he was born on April 
10, 1862, a son of Benjamin and Jane (Nes- 
bitt) Bistline, also natives of the Keystone 
state, where his father was a farmer and a son 
of Joseph B., a German emigrant. After. a 
thorough education in the public schools Mr. 
Bistline engaged in successful teaching in 



Pennsylvania and Illinois, continuing this oc- 
cupation until 1884, when, going to Nebraska, 
he became connected with agriculture, but in 
1886 he removed to Kansas and there engaged 
in the selling of hardware and agricultural im- 
plements until 1890, when the business condi- 
tions of the state being almost paralyzed by 
the unusually dry season, Mr. Bistline sold 
out and came to Pocatello, Idaho, where he 
•became identified with railroad operations, in 
connection with the Oregon Short Line Rail- 
road as an employe in the motive power de- 
partment until 1898, when he established the 
lumber-yard business here in which he contin- 
ues his operations, his patronage coming from 
an extended area. 

As a member of the Democratic party he 
has been identified with its campaigns and its 
public affairs, and by reason of his popularity 
receiving a very gratifying election to the of- 
fice of mayor of Pocatello in 1899. Social in 
his nature, Mr. Bistline would necessarily be 
in harmony with fraternal organizations, and 
we find that he is a member of the Masonic 
order, active in its councils and valued in the 
lodg'e. In the local lodge of Knights of Pyth- 
ias he is a past chancellor and has served an- 
nually as a delegate to the grand lodge since 
1898. 

On April 10, 1887, Mr. Bistline married 
with Miss Gracia Gross, a native of Ohio, and 
a daughter of Philip and Clara (Stier) Gross, 
the family circle including the following chil- 
dren : Claude, Ida May and Jean Nesbitt. 

MRS. ANNA HARMER. 

The invasion of the province of woman- 
hood into -the positions of personal effort and 
accomplishment has been given a proper and a 
just recognition in the virile young state of 
Idaho, and thus we are permitted to call di- 
rect attention to Mrs. Harmer, who is the in- 



474 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



cumbent of an important and distinguished of- 
ficial position in the gift of the people of Ban- 
nock county, where she is the superintendent 
of the public schools, an honor which has been 
most worthily bestowed, since she has shown 
marked executive ability and has been and is 
prominently identified with educational work. 
She was born in Burlington. Towa, a daugh- 
ter of James and Margaret (Breene) Forden, 
emigrants from Ireland who came to the 
United States in 1861 and made their home in 
the city of her birth. 

Mrs. Harmer early manifested literary abil- 
ity of a high order, graduating with distinc- 
tion from the high school at Burlington, there- 
after attending the Burlington Normal School, 
maintaining there the same relative precedence 
that had distinguished her in her earlier edu- 
cation. After her graduation therefrom she 
became interested in pedagogic labors, for ten 
years maintaining a high reputation as an in- 
structor in the public schools of Burlington, 
thence removing to the state of Washington, 
where was her home until 1893, when she ac- 
cepted the principalship of the East school 
of the city of Pocatello, giving marked satis- 
faction in this situation by the progress, de- 
meanor and culture of the pupils, and holding 
this position until 1900, when she was nomi- 
nated by the Democratic party as its candidate 
for the responsible office of county superintend- 
ent of schools, receiving a highly gratifying 
vote, and being elected, and, after an admin- 
istration demonstrating her high ability, she 
was nominated and re-elected in T902. being 
one of the three county officers chosen by the 
people on the Democratic ticket. In her la- 
bors she has proved exceptionally successful 
and has justified the choice of the people, and 
has conducted her work with zealous interest, 
administering its affairs to the distinct im- 
provement of the educational work and facili- 
ties of the county. Her popularity is ex- 



tremely great in Pocatello, where her home and 
business headquarters are located. By her 
marriage to George Harmer, which occurred 
on August 14. 1888. she has one winsome 
daughter, Margaret. 

AAROX C. WILSON. 

A native of the Buckeye state, where his 
birth occurred in Richland, on November 15. 
1834, as a son of George and Elizabeth (Kin- 
ney) Wilson, Aaron C. Wilson, the subject of 
this review, after a long and eminently useful 
life in quiet rural occupations, is now passing 
the pleasant eventide of his earthly existence 
on his pleasant and attractive ranch of 160 
acres, which is eligibly and conveniently located 
eight miles west of the village of Blackfoot. in 
Bingham county. George Wilson was born in 
1800 in the state of Vermont, a son of Bradley 
and Polly Wilson and a grandson of Dill Wil- 
son, who was also born and passed his entire 
life in Vermont. He was a cooper, learning the 
trade in Vermont, where he remained until the 
age of twenty years, when he accompanied his 
parents on their migration to Ohio, there con- 
tinuing to reside until he was thirty years old. 
when he took another step in his westward 
progression, going to Illinois and shortly there- 
after to Iowa. 

Here he joined one of the ox-train caravans 
of Mormons and crossed the plains to Utah 
in 1853. experiencing many vicissitudes and 
troubles on the way. His removal to Utah 
was accomplished that he might enjoy without 
interruption or molestation the full privileges 
of his membership with the Mormon church. 
After arriving in the Land of Zion he located 
in Weber county, where he profitably conducted 
farming operations for the remainder of his 
life and died in 1874. 

Mrs. Elizabeth (Kinney) Wilson, a native 
of Pennsvlvania. contracted her marriage with 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



475 



Mr. Wilson in Ohio, and she patiently and un- 
complaining'lv accompanied him on his long 
and wearisome journey across the plains, and, 
after being a faithful and industrious helpmeet 
of her husband, and becoming a mother of 
twelve children, she cast off her earthly activi- 
ties in 189 1 at the age of eighty-six years. Her 
father was a native of Pennsylvania and a son 
of Louis Kinney, who passed his entire life in 
that state. 

Aaron C. Wilson received his earfy prelim- 
inary educational advantages in the schools in 
the neighborhood of the parental homestead in 
Ohio and joined in the various migrations of 
his father's family until they reached Utah in 
1864, making his first individual effort in Utah 
as a farmer, and this independent and profitable 
occupation he steadily conducted, with ever-in- 
creasing proportions, in Weber and Davis coun- 
ties for the long term of twenty years. He 
then, in 1888, removed his residence to Idaho 
and his present location, where he has since 
maintained his home, being busily employed, 
not only in the profitable prosecution of the rais- 
ing of cattle and farming, but also in horticul - 
tural pursuits, setting out, cultivating and de- 
veloping a fine orchard of the best varieties of 
fruit, demonstrating in this manner and with 
success, the great possibilities and superiority 
of Idaho as a fruitgrowing state. 

On December 8, 1864, Mr. Wilson was 
joined in the holy bonds of wedlock with 
Miss Mary Johnston, the father being a 
native of England, where he was born 
in 1797, removing thence at the age 
of thirty years to Scotland, where he 
was actively identified with mining until he 
became associated as a member with the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, when, in com- 
pany with others of the same persuasion, he em- 
igrated, making his way to Utah across the 
Atlantic Ocean and the plains, to there enjoy 
uninterruptedly the benefits of his church rela- 



tions, settling in Weber county, where he was 
an industrious farmer until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1874. 

His father, John Johnston, was a prominent 
shipbuilder and owner, a native of England, in 
which country he passed his entire life. Mrs. 
Mary (Stewart) Johnston was a represent- 
ative of one of the oldest and proudest families 
of the fair land of Scotland, being a daughter 
of David and Elizabeth (Simpson) Stewart, 
and her death occurred in Utah in 1886, at the 
age of seventy-seven years. Her grandfather, 
David Stewart, was a lifelong resident and a 
gardener of Scotland, and her father, David 
Stewart, passed his life as an ocean sailor. Mr. 
and Mrs. Wilson's family consists of six chil- 
dren, Mary, Martha, Emily, Aaron, John aiid 
James. 

DANIEL H. ADAMS. 

One of the distinctively representative 
farmers of the vicinity of the progressive town 
of Rigby, where he is the proprietor of a model 
farm of 160 acres of fertile land, on which he 
is intelligent!)' and very satisfactorily conduct- 
ing diversified farming and stockraising, Dan- 
iel H. Adams is a man who shows that 
thoughtful consideration, careful and wise dis- 
crimination and sagacious judgment which al- 
ways deserves financial success and in the 
great majority of cases attains it. He was 
born on April 23, 1855, at Salt Lake City, 
Utah, a son of Barnabas and Julia A. (Banker) 
Adams. The father was born August 28, 
1812, at Bathurst, County Lanark, Canada. 
The mother, a native of Plattsburg, N. Y., was 
born May 6, 1826, and came to Utah in the 
first immigration of July, 1847, into the land 
of Deseret, the father becoming an active busi- 
ness factor in the new community of the in- 
choate city of Salt Lake, in connection with 
farming operations and the raising of stock, 
taking large contracts for the delivery of tim- 



47 6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ber for use in constructing buildings in the rap- 
idly growing town, among these being the 
theater and the Tabernacle. At the age of 
fifty-eight years he was called to cease his 
earthly labors on June i, 1869. The mother 
survived him, and in 18S6 Came to Idaho, 
where three of her sons, Hyrum, Brigham and 
Joshua resided with her. Hyrum remaining 
until 1901. The mother took a trip to New 
York, where she is now residing with Maud 
Adams, her granddaughter. She filed on a 
homestead of 160 acres in close proximity to 
her son. Daniel, where she resided until 1903. 
enjoying the love and veneration of numerous 
relatives and friends and having attained the 
age of seventy-seven years oh May 6, 1903. 

Mr. Adams can justly be considered "the 
architect of his own fortune." for from the ten- 
der age of eight years he has cared for himself. 
until he was fourteen vears old (when his 
father died) working at farm work and at 
herding, thoroughly assimilating all the prac- 
tical knowledge attainable in these occupations, 
to make good use of it in later years. From 
fourteen years of age until he was eighteen he 
was employed in teaming, and then he engaged 
in ranching for himself and for his mother and 
her family, continuing to be thus occupied un- 
til 1884. when he determined to try what pos- 
sibilities the new sagebrush territory of the 
Upper Snake River valley of Idaho could fur- 
nish to him. coming to Rigby and locating on 
a government homestead of 160 acres, two 
miles due west of the town. Here he settled 
himself down to the steady labor required in its 
reclamation, irrigation and culture, being 
greatly prospered in his undertakings, and. in 
connection with the general farming of the 
Snake River valley, he is becoming extensively 
known as a most judicious raiser and breeder 
of the better strains of horses, cattle and hogs, 
some superior specimens of the various kinds 
of animals being: now under his care. He was 



prominently connected with the construction of 
irrigating ditches and canals, laboring steadily 
from the commencement of work on the first 
one inaugurated until the last oiie was finished, 
being a stockholder in the Rigby. the Parks & 
Lewisville and the Great Feeder canals and a 
director of the Rigby Irrigation Co. Politi- 
cally Mr. Adams was a Republican until 1902. 
but now is a Socialist. 

Mr. Adams has been twice married, fir-t. 
at Salt Lake City, with Miss Rose E. Smith on 
January 21. 1885, who died at Rigby. Idaho, on 
January 30. 1889, leaving two children. Char- 
lotte Amelia and Benjamin, deceased. The 
second marriage was at South Cottonwood, 
Utah, on October 9. 1890. and with Miss Re- 
becca Tanner, a daughter of John J. and 
Nancy A. ( Ferguson! Tanner, natives of the 
Eastern states, who. coming to Utah as pio- 
neers, settled at South Cottonwood, where the 
father engaged in farming and a successful vet- 
erinary practice until his death on September 
8. 1896. at the venerable age of eighty-five 
years, the mother now maintaining her home 
at South Cottonwood at the age of sixty-two 
years. The children of the second marriage 
are. Lydia S., Hanmer D., Piatt X., Hyrum 
J.. Mabel R. and Avalon A. 

M. J. DAVIS. 

One of the forcible, energetic business men 
of Bear Lake county, who has attained promi- 
nent success during his residence in the terri- 
tory and state through his superior business 
ability, sound judgment, enterprise and ster- 
ling integrity, we must conspicuously mention 
M. J. Davis, of the mercantile firm of Brennan 
& Davis, of Montpelier. Idaho, who was born 
in the pioneer settlement that has since devel- 
oped into the brisk and active Montpelier of 
today. His birth occurred on September 24. 
1804, l>eing a son of J. M. and Harriet (Os- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



477 



borne) Davis, natives of Illinois, who were 
"pioneers of pioneers," the mother crossing the 
plains in the earliest immigration into Utah of 
Mormon settlers, coming with the first battal- 
ion in 1847, an d on the journey becoming an 
orphaned infant, by her mother dying on the 
way across the plains, her remains being bur- 
ied by the side of the trail. The father, J. M. 
Davis, did not tarry in Utah but went on to 
California in the very early fifties, there be- 
coming an extensive farmer and stockman. 
He was a son of William and Sarah (McKee) 
Davis. 

The paternal grandmother of M. J. Davis 
was extremely prominent in the early days of 
Utah, laboring untiringly as a physician in 
behalf of the sick and accomplishing much 
good by her knowledge of remedials and her 
skill in administering medicine. The cheer- 
ing disposition which accompanied her visits 
oftentimes wrought as much benefit to the suf- 
ferer as the best of medicines, and with the 
old people her memory yet remains like a fra- 
grant essence. Both the parents of Mr. Davis 
are living, maintaining their home for the last 
seven years in close proximity to the city of 
Blackfoot, Idaho, where the father is conduct- 
ing merchandising at the present writing, and 
they have been the parents of twelve children, 
six boys and six girls, of whom nine are now 
living. 

After his early 3 r ears of study, M. J. Davis 
attended the high school of Brigham City, 
Utah, from which he was graduated in 1881, 
thereafter being engaged in various occupa- 
tions, having a strong physical organization, 
and devoting his attention to any department 
of strenuous life that called for the applica- 
tion of his vigorous energies, among them be- 
ing that of a driver of a delivery wagon for 
the Burgoyne store of Montpelier, thereafter, 
in 1895, being elected sheriff of Bear Lake 
county and serving with capability during the 



two years of his incumbency of that office-. 
He then engaged in the cattle business, con- 
ducting it with wise discrimination and pros- 
perously until 1902, when he purchased an 
interest in the mercantile firm with which he is 
now connected. Being considered a man of 
sagacity, thrift and honorable dealing, he car- 
ries everything which he undertakes to a suc- 
cessful issue, never being discouraged by de- 
feat or appalled by seeming disaster, but bend- 
ing circumstances to his success by his un- 
swerving will and force of character. 

On June 7, 1892, Mr. Davis married with 
Miss Maud Brennan, a sister of his associate 
in business, and a daughter of John and Kath- 
arine Brennan, natives of Illinois and of Irish 
lineage. To Mr. and Mrs. Davis have been 
born two children : Lillian and Helen. Mr. 
Davis has fully demonstrated his right to be 
called a public citizen, and his active aid and 
stimulating example are ever at the call of his 
fellows for any enterprise which he deems of 
merit, and the family stands high in the re- 
gards of many friends. 

JASPER C. WILSON. 

This excellent citizen, good farmer and 
. generous friend and neighbor has known no 
other section of the country as his home ex- 
cept the illimitable plains, mountains and 
valleys of the Great West, since he was born 
at Farmington, Utah, on December 29, 1869, 
being reared among its inspiring surround- 
ings, and by devoting his life and energies to 
business affairs within its limits becoming 
one of the best types of the younger gener- 
ations of progressive men of the state to which 
he now owes allegiance, and of which he is 
a dutiful and law-abiding" citizen. 

Mr. Jasper C. Wilson is a son of C. C. 
and Emeline (Miller) Wilson, early Mormon 
pioneers to Utah from Missouri, their native 



i;> 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



state, and who have so comported themselves 
in their Western residence as to win the af- 
fectionate confidence and regard of all with 
whom they have come in contact. They still 
reside at Kanesville. Utah, secure in the es- 
teem of the whole community. In the home 
of these godly people the subject of this 
review attained manhood, receiving the per- 
manent impress upon his nature of their con- 
sistent, religious lives and in 1889 becoming 
a pioneer of southeastern Idaho, where he 
took up a homestead of 160 acres and in a 
small way engaged in farming and in the 
growing of stock, his energetic efforts yearly 
adding to the improvements and the value of 
the estate and to the extent of his operations 
as a stockman. 

He is now the owner of 160 acres of land 
which has been greatly increased in value 
through the water brought to it by irrigation 
canals, of which he was one of the originators 
and constructors. Mr. Wilson is a broad- 
gauged, generous individual, a true son of the 
West. "His latchstring ever hangs out," his 
hospitality being unbounded, while in religious 
faith he is fully in sympathy with and an active 
member of the Mormon church, as is to be ex- 
pected from the family characteristics and his 
youthful training, his father having the distinc- 
tion of being a member of the Seventies. On 
June 28. 1895. occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Wilson with Miss Lizzie Kerr, a native of Ohio 
and a daughter of George and Janette (Mason) 
Kerr, and their home is enlivened by four win- 
some children : Jennie, Georgie, Emeline and 
Marion. From the few points we have en- 
tered concerning the career of Mr. Wilson it 
will be seen that he possesses a true business 
ability, which is strongly recognized by the peo- 
ple of his county, and that his genial nature 
has gained for him a wide circle of friends, and 
the family home has ever been a center of gen- 
uine hospitality. 



LYMAX FARGO. 

Among the pioneers of this section of 
Idaho and now a resident of Bannock county, 
there is none who is held in higher esteem and 
honor than Mr. Fargo, who has played no un- 
important part in furthering the progress of 
this section of the state, having been long iden- 
tified with industrial and financial enterprises 
of great pith and moment and continually 
leaving the impress of his strong personality 
upon the community. Among the numerous 
progressive citizens of this section of the state, 
there is none more popular, none more versa- 
tile, and none has achieved a more distinctive 
or creditable success than the subject of this 
review, who is entitled to a tribute as being 
one of the leading financial factors of the 
county, being animated by that spirit of honor 
and that inflexible integrity which has made 
his life true in all its relations and thus insured 
the trust and high regard of his fellow men. 

Mr. Fargo was born in Bethany. X. Y., on 
October 5, 1850. a son of R. S. and Caroline 
(Berder) Fargo, the father being a native of 
Xew York and a descendant of old Colonial 
stock, and a son of Lyman and Elizal>eth (De- 
shon) Fargo, whose home was in the state of 
Connecticut, the Fargos being of Welsh an- 
cestry, and the mother of Lyman Fargo a na- 
tive of England, while his maternal grand- 
mother was of French lineage. His mother's 
death occurred in 1889, at the age of fifty-two 
years. 

Lyman Fargo received his education in the 
state of Xew York, and in 1880 he accepted 
the position of clerk in the mercantile house of 
Blvth & Pixlev. in Evanston, Wyo. After 
three vears' connection with the establishment, 
he purchased an interest of Mr. Pixlev. and 
has since been connected with mercantile oper- 
ations, the firm having an extensive business 
at Evanston. Mr. Fargo being the vice-presi- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



479 



dent of the incorporated company; they also 
own and are conducting a large store at Park 
City, Utah, as the, M. L. Ascheimer Co., of 
which Mr. Fargo is also vice-president. The 
combined business in these places is of great 
scope and importance in the line of general 
merchandising. Mr. Fargo came to Pocatello 
in 1892 and established the present prosper- 
ous business of the Blyth & Fargo Co., and has 
since made this city his home, having a fine 
residence of modern style and equipment, 
pleasantly located at 144 Garfield avenue. For 
the last ten years Mr. Fargo has been in touch 
with and a forceful agent in developing ev- 
erything of an important financial and public 
nature in connection with the rapid growth and 
development of the city, and he now is the 
president of the Bannock National Bank of 
Pocatello, which he has held from its establish- 
ment, standing high in the esteem of the finan- 
cial powers of the state. 

In the Masonic fraternity there is no mem- 
ber whose presence adds more to the life of 
the meetings of either lodge, chapter or com- 
mandery than does Mr. Fargo, while in the 
enjoyment of that Masonic club, the Mystic 
Shrine, he takes great pleasure. He has held 
the high position of eminent commander of 
the commandery most capably and efficiently, 
and he is also a genial member of the Benevo- 
lent and Protective Order of Elks, also belong- 
ing to the Modern Woodmen of the World. 

Mr. Fargo was married at Evanston, Wyo., 
on September 13, 1887, to Miss Estella Mc- 
Kenzie. a native of Michigan, and a daughter 
of James and Charlotte McKenzie, prominent 
citizens of that state. The family circle of 
Mr. Fargo is completed by two winsome 
daughters, Ellen E. and Marion C. The fam- 
ily are prominent in the social life of the com- 
munity, the beautiful home being one in which 
exists an atmosphere of refinement and cul- 
ture. 



NIELS P. NIELSON. 

Among the multitude of the energetic men 
and women which foreign countries have con- 
tributed so freely to the growth and develop- 
ment of America, no class is more thrifty or 
more generally useful than the hardy Danes 
who have come over in goodly numbers. Ac- 
customed to toil and self-denial at. home, with 
industrious and intelligent habits of thought 
and action, they come here in good form to 
grapple with the conditions that appertain to 
a new country, and they meet them with cour- 
age, resolute and masterful industry and 
marked financial ability. High on the list of 
this class must be placed the name of Niels 
P. Nielson, recently the energetic and prosper- 
ous proprietor of the pioneer grocery on Cleve- 
land avenue of the city of Pocatello, Idaho. 
Mr. Nielson was born in Denmark on Septem- 
ber 17, 1852, his parents, Peter and Mary 
(Hansen) Nielson, descending - from a long line 
of sturdy ancestors resident on Danish soil, 
his father being- a farmer and a son of Niels 
and Anna (Oleson) Nielson. and able to trace 
his genealogy by written documents to 1735. 
Of the four children of Peter Nielson only one 
beside Niels is living, his eldest sister, now 
maintaining her home in Copenhagen. Mr. 
Nielson was but sixteen years old when he 
crossed the Atlantic Ocean and made his way 
to Utah, having taken up the battle of life on 
his own account, and being there engaged in 
various occupations until 1880, when he came 
to Idaho and located at Blackfoot, in 1885 re- 
moving to Pocatello, and here having the dis- 
tinction of being the first elected constable of 
the infant city, and soon thereafter establish- 
ing himself in the grocery business, which by 
the wise discrimination and excellent care of 
himself and wife developed into large propor- 
tions and holds an important trade. He has 
been prospered in his undertakings, has made 



480 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



shrewd investments in real-estate in Pocatello, 
including a nice residence of modern style and 
equipment, located at 229 South Garfield ave- 
nue, and here he and his capable wife maintain 
their hospitable residence. Possessing broad in- 
formation and force of character. Mr. Xielson 
is a prominent factor in public affairs, his capa- 
bility to hold public office receiving public ap- 
proval in his election to the important office of 
county treasurer, which office is at the present 
time under the incumbency of his wife, who 
was elected to the office in 1900. Having the 
courage of his convictions, with a good com- 
mand of language. Mr. Nielson has done ef- 
fective service on the stump for the Demo- 
cratic party, being ever active and zealous in its 
service. In the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
of which he is a member. Mr. Nielson stands 
in high regard, having filled a mission in Scan- 
dinavia with good success, and being at pres- 
ent one of the high council of his church, and 
previous to his mission he was a first assistant 
counsellor to the bishop. 

On December 25, 1881. occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Xielson and Miss Hattie Jackson, 
a native of England, a daughter of William 
and Mary Jackson, early Mormon emigrants 
to Utah, where her father passed away from 
earth, and her mother still resides at Ogden. 
The}- have nine children: William E.. a busi- 
ness man of Pocatello. Niels P.. Jr.. Elvira. 
Leroy, Mary, Arthur, Lottie. Mattis and Har- 
mon. The tastes and habits of Mr. and Mrs. 
Nielson are remarkably similar and they in 
equal degree have the confidence and esteem 
of the people. 

CHRISTIAN J. JOHNSON. 

Descending from a long line of sturdy Dan- 
ish ancestors, Mr. Christian J. Johnson, the 
veteran insurance and real-estate agent of Po- 
catello, where he also conducts an extensive 



trade in bicycles, was born in the far-away 
land of Denmark, at Faaborg. on December 
26, 1841. He had excellent opportunities of 
education in the Danish schools until he was 
fourteen years old. thereafter, for eighteen 
months, having the advantage of the celebrated 
gymnasium of Hamburg', Germany. From his 
school days down to the present writing the 
life of Mr. Johnson has been very far removed 
from one of unvarving monotony, circum- 
scribed by the habits, thoughts and customs of 
an isolated and humdrum community, fi >r he- 
has traveled far and wide with observant and 
critical eyes, in this manner richly supplement- 
ing the education he acquired at school. 

V Tile a student at Hamburg, that great 
naval metropolis, his young fancy saw the ro- 
mance and golden halo surrounding "a life on 
the ocean wave," and, relinquishing forever 
the hopes and aspirations of his early youth 
and the plans of his parents, he entered the 
merchant service, making his maiden voyage 
to Australia, and in this hazardous vocation 
fourteen years of eventful life were passed, 
often being among strange scenes and historic 
episodes. In 1858 and 1859. during the Chi- 
nese-Teping war. he was in the water- of 
China, and in 1863 and 1864 of the American 
Civil war he was in the Federal transport serv- 
ice. 

Toward the close of 1864 he became the 
second mate of a New Bedford ship, the St. 
George, in which lie sailed on a round trip 
to Buenos Ay res. and from 1866 he was for 
eighteen months engaged in the shiprigging 
business, first in Maine and later in Philadel- 
phia. Thereafter, at Weatherly. Pa., for a 
period of four years, he filled many responsi- 
ble positions in the employment of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad, then, also at Weatherly, es- 
tablished a monthly journal, the Lilliput. de- 
voted to home interests, which he conducted 
for two years, subsequently being connected 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES,, IDAHO. 



481 



with various printing houses, in Philadelphia, 
Chicago, Ogden and Salt Lake City, and be- 
ing for several years a valued attache of the 
Religio-Philosophical Journal and the Chicago 
Times. 

In 1873 he was one of a colonizing party 
organized in Chicago as The Grand River 
Colony, to establish a co-operative settlement 
in Colorado on the river indicated in the arti- 
cles of incorporation. Of this organization he 
was one of the leaders and the secretary. 
Knowing but little of the climatic or other con- 
ditions of the country for which it was bound, 
the company fell into difficulties. They at- 
tempted the crossing of the Rocky Mountains 
in November, and suffered fearfully from 
deep snows, inclement weather and unforeseen 
deprivations, that scattered the company in 
small parties, many of them being snowbound 
in the mountains, their only provisions for the 
entire winter being seed wheat and porcupines. 
By these unpropitious agencies the colon}' was 
disintegrated and its mission abandoned. 

The following fall Mr. Johnson located at 
Rawlins, Wyo., becoming the manager of the 
railroad hotel, thereafter going to Evanston, 
where for a year he was the foreman of the 
newspaper called the Evanston Daily Age. He 
next was the superintendent of the Uinta coal 
mine at Alma, continuing in this service until 
a company was incorporated to work it-. In 
the fall of 1896 his services were obtained as 
foreman of the office of the Ogden Freeman, 
a Gentile weekly newspaper; going from there 
in the next year to Salt Lake City, where he 
did acceptable editorial and composition work 
on both the Tribune and the Herald. From 
Salt Lake, in the latter part of 1877, he made 
his way to Trinity county, Calif., where for 
fourteen years he was engaged in mining op- 
erations, being also for eleven years of that 
time a popular justice of the peace. 

From California Mr. Johnson returned to 



his former Pennsylvania home, where, on No- 
vember 12, 1893, he was united in marriage 
with Miss Clara R. Cassler, a member of a 
prominent family of that section, and a de- 
scendant of Baron Philip Von Odenwalder, a 
native of Holland, who became one of the early 
resident landholders of Pennsylvania, where 
his landed estate covered the site of the city 
of Easton and adjacent territory. She is a 
lady of rare artistic ability, and has recently 
been honored by the chief executive of the 
state with an appointment to take charge of 
the art exhibit of Idaho at the St. Louis Ex- 
position. His first wife, Mrs. Olive H. (Hall) 
Johnson, with whom he married in 1866, at 
Rockland, Me., died in California in 1882. 

From 1891 Mr. Johnson has maintained 
his residence at Pocatello, Idaho, where he 
' formed a partnership with E. S. Whittier in a 
law, insurance, lumber and real-estate busi- ■ 
ness, thereafter becoming a permanent resi- 
dent of the inchoate Gate City, from that time 
forward being- prominently engaged in the 
prosecution of his various lines of business and 
receiving a generous patronage. In the great 
fire of 1892, which destroyed the opera house, 
the Pocatello House and many other business 
places, the office of Whittier & Johnson was 
burned, entailing much loss, Mr. Johnson be- 
ing a great sufferer, while the large collection 
of valuable and unique articles and curios which 
he had acquired in his many years of travel, 
many of them being impossible of duplication, 
was totally destroyed. 

In 1899 Mr. Johnson bought the interest 
of his partner in the firm and has since con- 
ducted business alone, removing", in 1901, to 
his present commodious and central location 
on West Clark street, where he combines a fine 
trade in bicycles with his other operations. In 
the summer of 1902 he again became interested 
in mining and with his wife owns stock in 
promising claims in the Fort Hall mining dis- 



482 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



trict, which are being rapidly developed. He 
also owns valuable real-estate in both Poca- 
tello and Blackfoot. 

From the time of the Civil war, when he 
became an American, Mr. Johnson has been 
an unswerving Republican, loyally aiding the 
party by personal service and by his able pen. 
often refusing nominations and appointments 
to office, preferring to serve as a simple pri- 
vate in the ranks. In fraternal relations he 
has been a valued member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows for the past ten years, 
filling with a conceded ability all of the offices 
of the subordinate lodge and some in the 
grand encampment, since 1895 being also a 
member of Ivy Lodge of Rebekahs, at Poca- 
tello. 

A pungent and forceful writer, Mr. John- 
son has written much of value in political, sci- 
entific and humanitarian fields. An extensive 
and thoughtful reader, he has a crisp, nervous 
style, which results in strong, concise articles, 
delightfully flavored with an original wit and 
humor, which incessantly bubbles up in both 
his conversation and his writings, in which, 
however, the pronoun "I" is noticeably an ab- 
sent factor. His "Unwritten History," pub- 
lished some years since in the Salt Lake Trib- 
une, attracted much notice. 

An earnest believer in immortality and in 
spirit communion, leading spiritualistic papers, 
notably the Banner of Light, the Religio-Phil- 
osophical Journal and the Progressive Thinker, 
are indebted to him for many highly appreci- 
ated articles indicating scholarly research, lit- 
erary ability and acute reasoning powers. His 
communications to the local press excite at- 
tention from their forcefulness and pungencv. 
Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Johnson has ever eaten 
the bread of idleness. They never fail to ex- 
tend to others a broad and generous hospitality 
and their latch-string is always to be found on 
the outside of their door. 



JAMES BODILY. 

Although a native of Cape Town. South 
Africa, and of English parentage. James Bod- 
ily, of Fairview, Oneida count}', this state, is a 
thorough American, loyally devoted to the in- 
terests of his country and always willing and 
ready to contribute his share of the impelling 
power for its advancement and improvement. 
He was born on May 6. 1847, tne son °f Rob- 
ert and Jane (Pittam) Bodily, an account of 
whose lives will be found in the sketches of 
their sons. Edwin and William, on other pages 
of this work. When James was thirteen years 
of age he accompanied his parents to America, 
and in the train of ox teams captained by Wil- 
liam Budge, now a resident of Paris. Idaho, 
they crossed the plains to Utah and settled at 
Kaysville. Here the youth grew to manhood 
and finished the education in the schools of 
this neighborhood which had been begun in 
those of Cape Colony. He worked on the 
farm with his father and also, under his in- 
struction, learned his trade as a stone-mason 
and bricklayer. He became proficient at the 
craft, and found his mechanical skill in great 
demand as the little town of Kaysville was 
building rapidly and the surrounding country 
was being settled up and filled with homes. 
In May. 1872, in company with his brother 
Robert, he moved to the northern Cache Val- 
ley, following his brother William into this re- 
gion, and being followed thither two years 
later by his brother Edwin. The brothers 
united their efforts in the work of reducing the 
waste around them to productiveness and mak- 
ing homes in this then almost uninhabited sec- 
tion. Side by side they toiled, sometimes al- 
most against every hope of progress, and to- 
gether they endured privations and hardship-; 
and confronted dangers which would have 
made all but the stoutest hearts quail if they 
did not surrender. But although slow and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



483 



difficult, their progress was steady and their 
conquest was established, and the country 
around them, that is fragrant with the blooms 
and rich with the fruits of every element of 
civilization and comfort, is now the best monu- 
ment to their enterprise, endurance and breadth 
of view. The subject first located on the same 
place with his brother William, but, realizing 
after a little while that more land was needed 
for their proper progress, he homesteaded in 
1874 on the adjoining tract, which has been 
his home continuously since that time. For 
some 3'ears after his arrival in this region the 
exigencies of the situation for himself and 
others forced him to work at his trade as a 
stone-mason and builder, but during the last 
sixteen years he has devoted his energies 
wholly to his ranch and dairy interests, and 
has found in them sufficient to occupy all his 
time and engage all his faculties in the way of 
business. 

On December 13, 1869, at Salt Lake City, 
Mr. Bodily was married to Miss Mary L. 
Hyde, a native of Utah, daughter of Rosel and 
Mary A. (Cowles) Hyde and sister of Rose! 
James Hyde, of Fairview, a sketch of whom 
appears on another page of this work. They 
have had eleven children, namely: James W., 
who died on October 22, 1885, aged fifteen 
years and twenty- four days; Lucy E., wife of 
H. S. Stephenson ; Charles E., who died in De- 
cember, 1879, aged six years; Nora J., wife 
of Charles E. Stokes ; Heman H., who died on 
October 23, 1885, aged eight years and twenty- 
four days; Mary L., Annie D., Parley H., 
George C, Luella H. and Joseph A. His sec- 
ond marriage was with Miss Mary E. Stephen- 
son, by whom he has one daughter living, Or- 
pha B.,- and two dead, Jane and Isabella M. 
In the affairs of the church Mr. Bodily has 
from his early manhood been a diligent, zeal- 
ous and efficient worker. He was the first pre- 
siding elder of Fairview before it was organ- 

27— 



ized into a ward, and was also the first super- 
intendent of the Sunday school, his brother 
William being the assistant. When the ward 
was formed he became first counsellor to the 
bishop, and for seven years he was the untiring 
and resourceful Sunday home missionary of 
this locality. He is now president of the coun- 
cil of high priests of the ward, and in this ca- 
pacity has full scope for his breadth of view, 
executive ability and ripened wisdom. In pub- 
lic local affairs he has also been active, influ- 
ential and serviceable, filling the office of justice 
of the peace with such credit and in a manner 
so satisfactory to all concerned that he has held 
it continuously for eig'ht years and has recently 
been chosen to another term. In works of pub- 
lic improvement and convenience he is always 
foremost with wise counsel and valuable ma- 
terial aid. He was one of the promoters and 
first directors of the Lewiston (Utah) and Cub 
River Canal, that has done so much for the de- 
velopment and progress of this country, and 
has been closely and helpfully connected with 
other similar enterprises of great g-eneral util- 
ity and value to the community. 

JOSHUA HAWKES. 

It has been an eventful career which has 
come to the venerated subject of this review, 
since his lot in life was early cast with one of 
the most extraordinary movements which the 
world has ever known, and with the many ad- 
verse circumstances that environ life in new 
countries and which more especially were 
shown in the early founding of the Mormon 
settlements of Utah and other sections of the 
Great West. Mr. Hawkes was born at Far 
West, Caldwell county, Mo., on August 20, 
1836, a son of Joseph B. and Sophronia (Al- 
vord) Hawkes, natives respectively of Maine 
and New York. The father, in 1826, helped to 
"clear off" the land now occupied by the. 



4 8 4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



wealth)- city of Lockport, N. Y. From 
there the parents removed to Saginaw. Mich., 
where the father developed a fine farm from 
the heavily wooded lands and resided until 
1836, when, embracing the Mormon faith, they 
went to the gathering place at Far West. Mo., 
where the mother, who never fully gained her 
health after the birth of her son Joshua, died 
and was buried. The other members of the 
family resided there until the fanaticism of 
the Gentiles forced the members of the new 
religion to abandon their homes, from there 
returning east to Nauvoo, 111., where the fa- 
ther was engaged in various occupations 
through the years of sorrow and tragedy, re- 
maining until 1846, when he went with his 
familv to Garden Grove, Iowa, later proceed- 
ing to Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, where 
farming was carried on until 185 1, when the 
last long link in the westward chain of travel 
to Utah was completed. Mr. Hawkes, of this 
sketch, proceeded to drive three yoke of ox 
teams across the plains and finding the Elk- 
horn River too high to cross, a detour was made 
to Fort' Kearney, where on the bottoms of the 
Platte River were camped nearly all of the 
immense Sioux nation who were negotiating 
a treatv with the Crows. Reaching Utah in 
due time, the family proceeded to Ogden, and 
two years later to Spanish Fork, where they 
took up eighty acres of government land and 
resided until after the death of the father, in 
1863. 

In 1853 Mr. Hawkes was enrolled among 
the Utah volunteers, campaigning against the 
hostile Utes in the Walker war under Colonel 
Conover. serving with distinction for fourteen 
months and in several battles and skirmishes, 
acting also as an interpreter to the Indians. On 
commencing life for himself Mr. Hawkes en- 
gaged in farming, freighting and other em- 
ployments, continuing to be so occupied in 
Utah until 1874, when he came as a pioneer to 



Franklin, the first incorporated town of Idaho, 
where he purchased about eighty acres of land, 
entered the townsite and was acting mayor for 
eight years, buying the land from the govern- 
ment and deeding it to the people. When the 
charter was repealed, the territorial laws came 
in force until Idaho was admitted as a state. 
He was connected with the progress and ad- 
vancement of the settlement for eighteen years, 
thereafter coming to Rexburg. where he be- 
came possessed of 480 acres of land and com- 
menced its development, having been much of 
the time since his settlement engaged in the 
construction of the Conant Creek Canal, of 
which company he is a director and the vice- 
president, the canal being nine miles in length. 
His estate being so far from Rexburg, he re- 
sides in the city during the winter seasons to 
afford his children the advantages of the ex- 
cellent schools, and in January. 1903, he started 
the Academv boarding house. He was a mem- 
ber of the Legislature from Oneida county 
from 1876 to 1878 and was a very efficient 
county commissioner of the same county in 
1870 and 1880. He was ordained an elder in 
the church in 1854, served in that office for 
about eight years, and was ordained one of 
the Seventies in 1856, which office he still re- 
tains. 

Mr. Hawkes married Miss Mary Lewis on 
December 21. 1830. a daughter of John and 
Ann (Johns) Lewis, natives of Wales, where 
her mother died. Her father came to Utah in 
1854, bringing about twenty-one people from 
Wales with him to Box Elder county, where 
he followed his trade of mason, dying, at the 
ag'e of seventv-five vears. in Utah county. 
From this marriage resulted the following 
named children : Mary A.. Lucy. Levy, Jo- 
seph B., J. Lewis. Fredrick. Sophronia, Hor- 
ace B. and Claude F. By his marriage with 
Sarah Ann Smart, a daughter of Thomas S. 
Smart and Ann (Hatter") Smart. Mr. Hawkes 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



485 



is father to these children : Alsamina, Estes, 
Asahel, William T., Effie, Percy and Le Grand. 
Fifty-two years have passed since Mr. 
Hawkes came to the feeble colony on the shores 
of Salt Lake. He has witnessed the growth 
of that colony and religious movement until 
Utah has become one of the strong states of 
the republic. Idaho has known him as an ac- 
tive citizen on her soil for nearly thirty years, 
which have had their varied experiences, their 
trials, hardships, reverses and successes, and in 
the closing years of life he may rest content in 
the blessings his industry has provided, while 
his children enjoy the inheritance built up for 
them through these long eventful years of la- 
bor in pioneer life. 

ALFRED K. DABELL. 

Among the broad, large-hearted, progress- 
ive and eminently useful citizens of Fremont 
county, Idaho, there are none in the whole 
range of the territory who occupy a higher 
position than Alfred K. Dabell, a pioneer of 
Grant district and who is now in the incum- 
bency of the important religious office of bishop 
of Grant ward of the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter Day Saints, of which for many years 
he has been a most consistent and active mem- 
ber. Mr. Dabell was born on May 14, 1852, 
in Nottinghamshire, England, a son of Alonzo 
and Harriett (Lambert) Dabell, the paternal 
ancestry tracing back through generations of 
English occupancy to Normandy, and it is per- 
haps a fact that the original English settlers 
of the name accompanied William the Nor- 
man in his celebrated conquest of England in 
1066. The parents of Mr. Dabell came to 
America in 1858, the father being in England 
connected with frame-work knitting opera- 
tions. In Philadelphia, Pa., where the family 
located first in the United States, they did not 
long reside, coming to Utah in 1861 in one of 



the numerous caravans of ox teams. The first 
location in Utah was at Mendon, in the Cache 
Valley, one year later removing to Paradise 
and two years thereafter coming to Idaho and 
residing in Bear Lake county for six years, 
thence removing to Harrisville, near Ogden, 
Utah, where fourteen years were passed and 
then a permanent home was secured at Grant, 
Fremont count}', Idaho, where they are now 
pleasantly passing the evening twilight of use- 
ful and deeply religious lives, the father be- 
ing now seventy-eight years of age and the 
mother seventy-three. 

Alfred K. Dabell, when twenty years of 
age, assumed business cares for himself, and 
on April 28, 1873, at Salt Lake City, married 
with Miss Julia A. Taylor, a native of Ogden, 
Utah, born on May 10, 1857, a daughter of 
Pleasant C. and Clara P. (Lake) Taylor, na- 
tives of Kentucky, who came to Utah and 
made their home in Ogden, then moved to Har- 
risville, where they still reside. Mr. Dabeli 
lived in Harrisville when he married, and be- 
came a prosperous contractor and builder, fol- 
lowing that business with success for twenty 
years, some of the finest buildings of Harris- 
ville and vicinity being the result of his labors. 
In the fall of 1889 he came to the Upper Snake 
River country and at once located 160 acres, 
the northeast quarter of section 31, township 
4, range 38, in a neighborhood then bearing 
the popular name of "Poverty Flat," from the 
desert-like appearance of the country. Mr. Da- 
bell being the first settler and "his house the 
first civilized home of the locality. Under his 
judicious management and through his well- 
directed exertions the conditions have been 
greatly changed and fruitful fields and pleas- 
ant and attractive surroundings bespeak pros- 
perity and wealth rather than any signs of 
poverty. This has been to a very great degree 
accomplished by the efforts and untiring indus- 
try of Mr. Dabell, who has worked early and 



4&6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



late and given thoughtful care and considera- 
tion to the improvement of the land and to the 
supplying of the neighborhood with water, 
without which it would ever have remained a 
desert. The originator of the Poverty Flat 
Irrigation Canal Co., he was a forceful factor 
in the construction of the canal, being the first 
president of the company. From his original 
estate he deeded twenty acres to his father, 
gave two acres as the site of a schoolhouse and 
for its grounds, and has diligently applied him- 
self to render the remainder one of the finest 
ranches in a wide extent of country, and to the 
successful raising of superior breeds of cattle 
and sheep, being prospered in his undertakings 
and being considered one of the leading citi- 
zens of his portion of the valley. An incident 
peculiar to pioneer life in the semi-arid regions 
of the West will be of interest in this connec- 
tion. When the first canal of the Poverty Flat 
Co. was started a man named Burgess, who 
had a small canal in contemplation, secured the 
arrest of the nine members who were making 
the Poverty Flat Canal, and they were placed 
under $1,000 bonds. Burgess was also placed 
under bonds to await the result of the suit, but 
before the case came to trial he died and the 
remaining members of the Burgess Canal Co. 
compromised the matter and about 1890 the 
Poverty Flat Co. secured all the rights of the 
Burgess company by the payment of $3,500. 

A sterling Republican in politics, Mr. Da- 
bell has never aspired to political office, but has 
been content to labor for the success of his 
party in the ranks. In the circles of his church 
his time and energies have been freely given 
for the advancement and the prosperity of its 
interests. Ordained as a deacon in 1868, he 
held that office for five years, then was ordained 
as an elder, remaining in that position for eight 
years, when he was ordained as one of the Sev- 
enties. In 1890 he became a presiding elder 
and in 1894 he was ordained a high priest and 



set apart as a bishop, being now in the incum- 
bency of that office for Grant ward. In all the 
relations of life, social, domestic, temporal and 
spiritual, his duties have been well and consci- 
entiously performed and he stands high in the 
esteem of the people. A large family of chil- 
dren have come to the parental home, namely : 
Alfred W., Joseph (deceased), Alonzo G. 
ceased), Annie Laurie, Edwin G. (deceased). 
Pleasant W.. Maud Ella. James Llewellyn. 
Hattie May. David L.. Clara Almeda. Jennie 
Louise. Harvey G.. Myrl A., Preston and Lou- 
ceal. Mr. Dabell has now two sons and two 
daughters married and has nine grandchildren. 
These grandchildren are the fourth generation 
that is now living in the Grant ward, and they 
are all good, strong, healthv and robust and all 
that are old enough have been baptized and be- 
long to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints. 

BERNARD J. LAVERY. 

Numbered among the active, pushing and 
up-to-date citizens of Fremont county, Idaru ■. 
being- one of the leading and prosperous cattle- 
men of this section of the state, B. J. Lavery 
has shown unusual industry, sagacity and busi- 
ness force of character and is well entitled to 
more than a mere mention in any volume whose 
mission it is to preserve the memory of the 
progressive men of this portion of Idaho. He 
was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, on June 
29, 1863. the son of William J. and Ellen (Con- 
nelly") Lavery, the father being a prosperous 
farmer and raiser of blooded shorthorn cat- 
tle and Hambletonian horses in County Ty- 
rone, where, on his 100-acre estate, he pays an 
annual tax of one shilling and six pence per 
acre, and is still supervising the farm operation 
at the hale old age of eighty-two years, the 
mother joining the army of the saints in 1900. 
at the asre of seventv-five vears. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



487 



At the age of twenty-four years, in 1884, 
B. J. Lavery determined to avail himself of the 
potent opportunities lying dormant in the 
western portion of the United States, and, 
emigrating, he came direct to Fremont county, 
Idaho, where, in the vicinity of Salem post- 
office, he took up 320 acres of land, later add- 
ing to his possessions until he is now the owner 
of an estate of 400 acres, which through his 
intelligently directed and discriminating indus- 
try and care has been brought into fine im- 
provement and under excellent irrigation, Mr. 
Lavery being largely concerned in the con- 
struction of the pioneer irrigating plant, that 
of the Consolidated Farmers' Canal Co., and 
of this corporation he has been the capable 
and efficient president for fully one-half of the 
time of its existence. 

In 1893 Mr. Lavery engaged in the manu- 
facture of brick on his place in order to obtain 
the material he desired to use in the erection of 
an attractive residence of modern design and 
architecture, and for this purpose he made 15,- 
000 brick, which were utilized in this new 
house, and among the other valuable improve- 
ments he made and established in that year 
was the purchase and erection of a Belvit wind- 
mill having a twenty-foot wheel, which pumps 
sufficient water at the present time to amply 
supply 300 head of cattle beside all other de- 
mands. The same year Mr. Lavery paid a visit 
to his old home in Ireland, where, on April 2.7, 
1893, the rites of holy matrimony uniting him 
with Miss Bretta Inerney, a daughter of John 
and Mary (McGuckin) Inerney, members of a 
prominent and ancient family of County Ty- 
rone, were celebrated in accordance with the 
observances of the Roman Catholic church, of 
which both are consistent members. The death 
of her mother occurred in 1871, at the age of 
thirty-two years, and that of the father in July, 
1885, at the age of seventy-two years. The 
fruits of this highly felicitous union have been 



five brig'ht and interesting children, namely : 
Louis, born in March, 1894; Julia J., born on 
January I, 1896; Aloysius, born in May, 1898; 
Josephine A. and Josephus A., twins, born De- 
cember 6, 1899. 

Mr. Lavery has ever borne a prominent 
part in all local happenings, his forceful and 
energetic nature never permitting him to re- 
main an uninterested spectator of affairs af- 
fecting the welfare of the community, the 
county or the state, and he has often been so- 
licited and urg'ed by members of the Demo- 
cratic political party, of which he is an earnest 
supporter, to accept a nomination for public 
office, which he has as often declined, preferring 
to give his private affairs his whole attention, 
and in these he has been exceedingly prosper- 
ous, although he has met with heavy losses ; 
for example, in the spring of 1891, he and his 
associate in business, E. N. Carter, lost 114 
head of cattle from the scarcity of feed, as 
there was none to be obtained. Incidentally we 
will state as an evidence of the superior intel- 
lectual endowments of his family that Mr. Lav- 
ery has nine cousins that have been educated 
for and are now serving in the Catholic priest- 
hood, while several of his sisters are profes- 
sional nurses. 

HON. MARTIN PATRIE. 

Hon. Martin Patrie was born in Baden, 
Germany, on February 28, 1846, and when a 
child of six years of age he came to America 
with his parents, who located upon a farm in 
the state of New York, where Martin attained 
manhood and received the elements of a prac- 
tical and solid education at the public schools. 
In 1867, having reached manhood, his adven- 
turous spirit drew him westward to Kansas, 
where, in March, 1868, he took up a home- 
stead in Washington county, at that time one 
of the most lawless sections of the state. Here 



.88 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the daring courage, unruffed determination and 
fearless character of Mr. Patrie soon brought 
him into prominence and public notice, al- 
though so young in years. He took a bold 
stand against these people who acted in defi- 
ance of law and they early discovered that in 
him they had met their match. The daring 
and nerve shown by Mr. Patrie in many epi- 
sodes of the wild life of those times became 
universally a matter of comment and in 1870 
he was appointed a deputy sheriff of his 
county, in this sendee winning a high rank as 
a preserver of law and order. The reputation 
that he acquired led to his nomination and 
triumphant election in 1873 as ^ e sheriff of 
Washington county, and never in all of its 
history were the duties of this office performed 
so well as by him. At that time the frontier 
counties of Kansas were still the resort of 
border ruffians, "rustlers," murderers, outlaws, 
— men who shrank from no deed of evil and 
with whom a man's life was of no value. It 
was a time when brave and determined men 
were demanded. The safety of the domestic 
circle and of property hung in the balance and 
human life everywhere asked for protection 
from these murderous thieves. Mr. Patrie 
was just the man to fully maintain the dignity 
of his official station by his courage and un- 
flinching devotion to his duty. Single-handed 
and alone he hunted down the lawbreakers and 
succeeded in placing many a desperate criminal 
within the walls of the penitentiary, and his 
reputation as an outlaw hunter extended 
throughout, not only Kansas, but Iowa, Mis- 
souri and Nebraska. Through the untiring ex- 
ertions of Mr. Patrie and others of his nature 
law was firmly established in Kansas and the 
turbulent element either imprisoned or driven 
out of the state. The succeeding years of quiet 
were not sufficiently exciting to satisfy his ac- 
tive nature that so longed for participation in 
frontier life that in 1887 he came to Idaho, 



and established a permanent home at Market 
Lake, then the center of business activities for 
this section of the state. Here he at once 
assumed a leadership among the people, kept 
a popular hostelry, engaged in stockraising, 
and, despite the popular assumption that it was 
an impossibility to irrigate the lands in the vi- 
cinity of this home, through his untiring per- 
sistence the Butte and Market Lake Irrigation 
Canal Co. was organized. He was chosen its 
president and through his progressive spirit and 
personal supervision it was completed, being 
at that time one of the best works of that char- 
acter in the state, by its means bringing many 
acres of sagebrush wilderness into productive 
fertility. His enterprise and energy were man- 
ifested in even' form of industrial, social and 
community activitv as a leader in their ad- 
vancement and as a liberal benefactor of all 
enterprises of charity and works for the amel- 
ioration of humanity. 

Politically he early espoused the principles 
of the Republican party and became an active 
and shrewd political worker, carrying into poli- 
tics the same sagacity, indomitable, quiet but 
winning persistency for which he was noted in 
business operations. In 1890 he was elected 
clerk of the district court and county auditor 
and recorder for Bingham count)-, then includ- 
ing Bannock and Fremont counties, and into 
this office he introduced a prompt and accurate 
system. In 1890 and 1892. as chairman of 
the Republican central committee of Bingham, 
his vigor and wise counsels carried his party 
to victory. In 1894 he was selected as the 
chairman of the state central committee, his 
diplomacy and skill scoring a state victory for 
the Republicans in the election of that year. 
In 1896 the Idaho Republicans divided on the 
silver question and Mr. Patrie was chosen as 
the leader of the Silver Republicans and waged 
a vigorous fight in the campaign. In 1898, 
when a fusion was arranged of the Silver Re- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



489 



publicans and Democrats, he was nominated by 
acclamation in the Silver Republican conven- 
tion for the high office of secretary of state and 
was elected. This office he filled with wisdom 
and dignity and to the satisfaction of his polit- 
ical opponents as well as of his supporters. 
After this public service life did not long con- 
tinue to allow him opportunities for advance- 
ment, or to add to his large number of legal 
and devoted friends, as the end came and one 
of the most patriotic of the sons of Idaho was 
called away by death, and the entire state was 
wrapped in gloom. For many a long year his 
like will not be seen in the state. 

JOHN BALMER. 

Among the many nationalities of Europe 
who have given of their sons and daughters to 
aid in the work of developing, expanding and 
extending the domain of civilization in Amer 
ica none has sent better material than the in- 
tellectual German ' fatherland. Her children 
and their offspring have done a most excellent 
work in this country, being intelligent, indus- 
trious, law-abiding people, by their steady ap- 
lication to labor, their industry and thrift add- 
ing materially to the wealth of the country. 

In this class of worthy and reliable citizens 
must be noted John Balmer, of Market Lake, 
Idaho, who, although born in St. Louis, Mo., 
and a typical American in thought and action, 
was the son of upright German parents, whose 
ancestral lives run back in the old country far- 
ther than the memory of man. Mr. Balmer is 
the son of Charles L. and Mary Balmer, the 
date of his birth being February 22, 1862. The 
father enlisted and served with credit in a Mis- 
souri regiment of the Union army during the 
Civil war, dying at the age of seventy-three 
years, being- buried with military honors by his 
brethren of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
The mother preceded him to the Silent Land, 
dying at the age of fifty-five years. 



Passing his early life in his native state and 
receiving the educational advantages so liber- 
ally given in the public schools of St. Louis 
until he was sixteen years of age, John Balmer 
then struck out for himself, showing great bold- 
ness and self-reliance by plunging at once into 
the activities of the Far West, locating at Lead- 
ville, Colo., where he was at first engaged for a 
time in railroad construction work, then, until 
he was eighteen years old, being connected 
with mining operations. Coming to Idaho and 
to Market Lake in 1880, he soon became the 
driver of the mail stage running between Mar- 
ket Lake, Rexburg and Egin, continuing to 
be thus employed for the period of two years. 
Having by this time, through diligent attention 
to business and a praiseworthy economy, estab- 
lished a sufficient fund of financial re-enforce- 
ment, he used his right of pre-emption, locat- 
ing on a ranch and engaged in the stockraising 
industry. A few years later, his labors having 
met with a due reward, he sold his property and 
returned to St. Louis, where for nine years he 
continuously followed teaming- operations. The 
old love of the West and its life of freedom then 
returned, and again, leaving his native city, he 
came direct to Market Lake, and at once se- 
cured employment as a driver for Mr. Sam 
Hart, soon, however, leaving this service to 
. become connected with the construction de- 
partment of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, 
with which he has since been actively in touch, 
his qualifications for the labor being of a high 
character, and his work meeting the decided 
approval of his superiors. 

Deeming it the duty as well as privilege 
of every citizen to establish a permanent home 
for himself, Mr. Balmer, in fulfillment of this 
thought, on July 14, 1886, entered into matri- 
monial relations with Miss Catherine M. Ad- 
ams, a native of Market Lake, Idaho, where 
she was born on April 30, 1872, a daughter of 
John N. and Lovina Adams, and to this mar- 
riage union have been born these children, La- 



49° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



vina J., born September 4, 1887; Mary A., 
born July 22, 1889 ; John N., born January 24, 
[891 ; Olive L., born May 5, 1893. 

As a man and a citizen Mr. Balmer is ac- 
tive in local and public matters of general in- 
terest, ever taking willing part in aiding- all 
measures for the good of the public, is a strong 
Republican in political faith, and, in fraternal 
circles is a valued member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, formerly holding also a 
membership in the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen at St. Louis. 

AARON A. A. ADAMS. 

Among the prominent families of Staun- 
ton county, Va., for many years was noted that 
of Adams. The members were active, stirring, 
alert members of society, useful and honored 
by all of the people. Here, on February 19, 
1833, was born John N. Adams, who attained 
manhood in his native country and there re- 
mained until the closing year of the 
great Civil war. when. in association 
with Thomas N. Lander, he came to 
Idaho, where they conducted a stage 
line for a short time. Mr. Adams attending to 
the station at Pleasant Valley, from which 
place he later went to Market Lake, took up a 
ranch, and engaged in the raising of horses 
and cattle, in which he attained great promi- 
nence, before his death, on November 2, 1885, 
being rated as the heaviest stockraiser of the 
state. His operations in hay were gigantic, 
putting up and selling large quantities, being, 
however, often interrupted by the Indians, who 
burned his ricks and stacks, twice driving the 
settlers from their homes. He was one of the 
very earliest of the resident pioneers of the 
state, having to encounter to the full the depri- 
vations, privations and hardships incident to 
existence on the advanced frontier of the coun- 
try, acting and maintaining his political rela- 



tions through his entire manhood in full and 
hearty co-operation with the Democratic part)-. 
He had the first survey run where the Butte 
& Market Lake Canal is now, but died too 
soon to see its completion. 

On May 29, 1866, John N. Adams entered 
into matrimonial relations with Miss Lovina 
Marshall, whose birth occurred at Gloucester, 
England, on March 12, 1845, as a daughter of 
Thomas and Sarah (Good) Marshall, natives 
of England, and when she was quite young 
her father departed this life. The widowed 
mother, espousing the religious belief of the 
Mormon church, emigrated, coming to Utah 
with her six small children, of whom Lovina 
was the eldest, crossing the plains with a hand- 
cart from Omaha to Salt Lake City, for the 
most of the way subsisting on buffalo meat 
and an extremely limited amount of other pro- 
visions. After arriving in Utah, they settled 
in Cache Valley, where the mother is still re- 
siding-, having in the meantime married with 
Joseph Chadwick. 

The children of John N. and Lovina (Mar- 
shall) Adams numbered twelve, John W, E.. 
horn March 14, 1867, died June 17, 1869; 
George T. E., born July q, 1868: Joseph N., 
born December 18, 1869; Melvina C. born 
April 30, 1870; John 0. F., born August 15. 
1872; Elizabeth A., born December 18. 1873: 
Sarah L., born March 7. 1875; Aaron A. A.. 
born September 10, 1876; Charles F. J., torn 
September 13, 1878, deceased; Lovina Blanche, 
born October 13. 1879, deceased; Robert D. R.. 
born March 23, 1881 ; Olive M., born June 6, 
1883, deceased. Of the living children all 
but Elizabeth, who lives in Montana, are resi- 
dents of Idaho. The family circle is further 
enlarged by fifteen living grandchildren. 

After the death of Mr. Adams, on Septem- 
ber 14, 1886. at Eagle Rock, his widow formed 
a matrimonial alliance with another of the 
strong men of the state, being then united with 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



49 1 



John B. Cutshaw, who was born in Marshall 
county, 111., on January 25, 1846, and departed 
this life at Market Lake, Idaho, on April 2, 
1897. A man of force and great executive 
ability, his service as a corporal of Company 
A, Eleventh Michigan Cavalry, in the Civil 
war, and his years of residence on the plains of 
the middle West, gave him the needed disci- 
pline to ensure his substantial success in the 
border life of Idaho, whither he came in 1881 
from Kansas, locating at Market Lake, and en- 
gaging at first in stockraising, later being in 
business and public life as one of the prime 
factors in the construction of the Butte and 
Market Lake Irrigation Canal, which carries 
30,000 inches of water, and in which com- 
pany he was a director for some years, being 
also a vital force in many other enterprises for 
the development of the country. He was also 
the first sheriff to hold office in Fremont county, 
and a prominent member of the Republican" 
party, his strong personality often wresting 
victory from defeat in its campaigns. His death 
resulted from consumption, from which he suf- 
fered for many years. The Salt Lake Tribune, 
in .April, 1897, published a very comprehen- 
sive memoir of him. His funeral was at Mar- 
ket Lake, conducted under the auspices of the 
Masonic and Grand Army of the Republic so- 
cieties, of both of which he was a member. 

Aaron Arthur A. Adams, the seventh child 
of John N. and Lovina (Marshall) Adams, was 
born at Market Lake, Idaho, on September 10, 
1876, and enjoyed the educational advantages 
of the schools of Blackfoot from 1887 to 189 1. 
A man of nearly six feet in height, possessed 
of a strong and vigorous physique and mental- 
ity, from early life he was a man of activity, de- 
lighted in the out-of-door life of the valleys 
and mountains, and it was in full accord with 
the fitness of things that he should become a 
stockman, which vocation he has continuously 
followed from his earlv manhood, owning and 



running now, in association with his brothers, 
Robert and John, about 500 finely bred horses 
and 125 range cattle. 

The brothers stand among the leading real- 
estate owners of their county, and own fully 
one-half of the townsite of Market Lake. A 
very large block of the stock of the Butte and 
Market Lake Irrigation Canal Co. is owned by 
Mr. Adams, and he was for two years its sec- 
retary. Heartily in favor of the policies and 
principles of the Republican party, attempts 
have not been lacking to secure his acceptance 
of official positions in its gifts, but, with the 
exception of allowing his election to some 
minor ones, and, showing a great interest in 
the schools of his district, he has manifested no 
desire to hold public office. 

A very felicitous marriage was that which 
was consummated on February 11, 1902, when 
Mr. Adams and Miss Josie Ledwina were made 
man and wife. Mrs. Adams is the daughter 
of Joseph and Antonia (Wesley) Ledwina, na- 
tives of the ancient Europena kingdom of Bo- 
hemia and at present residents of Market Lake. 
Her birth took place on July 21, 1874, at Green 
Bay, Wis. To this marriage union has come 
one winsome daughter, Alice Caroline, born on 
September 2, 1902. 

THOMAS N. LAUDER. 

Truly a pioneer in all that the name im- 
plies, and to its fullest extent, being the first 
man to carry the mail on the route established 
in 1864 between Salt Lake City and Bannock, 
Mont., his route lying between Eagle Rock and 
Dry Creek, Idaho, and later being the first man 
to plow a furrow for the raising of crops in the 
Upper Snake River Valley in its settlement pe- 
riod, this being done on his claim on Willow 
Creek, Bingham county, in 1861, Mr. Thomas 
N. Lauder has been closely connected with ac- 
tive operations on the borderland, and has done 



492 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



very effective service in the advancement of 
civilization. 

Mr. Lauder was born at Schenectady, N. 
Y., on March 25, 1832, a son of David and 
Nancy A. (McKarlie) Lauder, both of Ins par- 
ents being also natives of the Empire state 
and of ancient Scottish lineage. His father, 
an energetic business man, at various periods 
of his life devoted his attention to farming, 
sawmilling operations and successful hotel- 
keeping. The mother was a lady of excellent 
traits of character and great physical vigor, her 
strong vitality enabling her to live until she 1 
was ninety-four years of age, when her death 
came to her at Albany, N. Y., being the mother 
of six sons and six daughters. 

Having passed the years of his minority 
diligently as a faithful son under the parental 
rooftree, aiding his father on the farm and in 
lumbering, he commenced his individual efforts 
in life as an employe in a lumber yard at 
Brooklyn, N. Y., after one year removing 
thence to Montgomery county, N. Y., to busy 
himself with farming for two years. From 
there Mr. Lauder made a journey fraught with 
importance to all of his future life, as it was 
his first introduction to the West and its in- 
dustrial activities. This journey carried him to 
the pineries of Wisconsin, where for six years 
he was employed in the transportation of sup- 
plies from Stevens Point to the various lumber 
camps of the interior, a portion of this time 
conveying the maiis for the United States gov- 
ernment. 

From Wisconsin, in June, 1855, Mr. Lau- 
der removed to Cass county, Iowa, and until 
the spring of 1864 was occupied as a mail car- 
rier on the route between Lewis and Council 
Bluffs. It was in the spring of 1864 that a 
mail route of importance was established be- 
tween the great commercial center of Salt Lake 
City and the rich mining camp of Bannock, 
Mont . and, as before mentioned, Mr. Lauder 



was a mail carrier on this route for one year. 
Then the fascinations of Virginia City and of 
Helena occupied his time for one year, after 
which period of time he returned to Idaho, and 
for two years took charge of a stage station 
at Market Lake. He then gratified a desire to 
visit his old home for the winter, in the spring 
returning to Idaho, and making his home on 
the place he had previously located on Willow 
Creek in Bingham county. Here, as we have 
mentioned already, he plowed the first land in 
the Upper Snake River Valley as a settler and a 
permanent occupant of the soil. Later he was 
for two years engaged in merchandising at 
Camas. Idaho, and. after selling- his store and 
goods, he located a ranch at Market Lake, 
where he has since maintained his residence, 
and been actively and prosperously engaged in 
the raising of cattle and horses. 

A good citizen, viewing public matters 
from the standpoint of the Republican party. 
Mr. Lauder has ever been interested in any- 
thing tending to develop, improve or instruct 
the community and has done good service for 
many vears as a school trustee. Attempts to 
draw him into other public offices have sig- 
nally failed, and, although he has been elected 
several times as a justice of the peace, he has 
never qualified for office. 

On October 10, 1880, at Eagle Rock. 
Idaho. Mr. Lander was united in marriage 
with Miss Leona B. Adams, a daughter of 
William J. and Mary A. (Morrison) Adams, 
natives of Virginia, who in 1867 came to 
Idaho, where the father has resided at Market 
Lake, the mother passing from earth in Octo- 
ber, 1901. The family circle of Mr. Lander 
has contained the following children: Mary 
Agnes, born September 14, 1884. died on No- 
vember 2^. 1804; Catherine M., born on Feb- 
ruarv 27. 1886; William J., born December 4, 
1887: Laura B., born March to, 1889, and 
Frank X.. born October 5. 1892. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



493 



JOSEPH C. FISHER. 

The first settler on what is now known as 
Poole's Island in Fremont county, Idaho, and 
an early pioneer of Utah and California, few 
lives have been more active or more fully filled 
with eventful interest and experiences of un- 
usual and oftentimes startling character than 
has that of Joseph C. Fisher, who has been a 
conspicuous actor in many scenes that will for 
all time be known as historic, and who, 
commencing at a very early age to carve out 
his career, from the constant exercise of in- 
dustry, perseverance, bravery and indomitable 
pluck has achieved a degree of success which 
has placed him among the representative hus- 
bandmen and stockmen of southeastern Idaho, 
and given him position, standing and a favor- 
able consideration among the people. 

Mr. Fisher was born in Jasper county, 111., 
on March 2, 1843, a son OI Vartis and Jane 
(Chapman) Fisher, natives of Vermont and 
New York, who started on the perilous road 
for Utah in 1855 with ox teams, of which the 
twelve-year-old Joseph was the driver of one 
team, two yoke of oxen. The mother died on 
the way, of cholera, at- fifty-five years of age, 
the remainder of the family continuing on to 
Brigham City, Utah, which was their home 
until 1858, the father in the meantime so badly 
freezing his feet that as a result he underwent 
an amputation of his leg three times, and just 
prior to his death, in February, 1865, at eighty- 
five years, removed to South Cottonwood, 
where he died. 

At thirteen years of age Mr. Fisher of this 
writing engaged in ranching for Utah people, 
continuing to be thus occupied until 1859, 
when he went to California and there passed 
three years in various employments, driving an 
ox-team outfit on his return to Utah in 1862. 
The stock of the party was about to be stam- 
peded by Indians one night when Mr. Fisher 



was on guard, but he threw a bullet into the 
gang, which ended the stampeding attempt. In 
1863 he assisted in making the first wagon 
road from Utah to Montana, hauling to the 
mines at Alder Gulch flour, salt and other es- 
sential "and valuable articles of produce, arriv- 
ing at Brigham City on his return on Christ- 
mas day. In 1864 he was one of the pioneer 
workers in the establishment of the settlement 
of Bloomington in Bear Lake county, in the 
fall of 1864 going to Spanish Fork, where he 
eng'ag - ed in freighting and ranching. From 
April, 1865, until the fall of 1867 was the era 
of the Blackhawk war, and some of the hostile 
Indians raided the stock of the settlers of 
Spanish Fork and Mr. Fisher was one of a 
party of fourteen whites which pursued them, 
overtaking them on July 4, 1865, and having 
a sharply contested battle of nearly three hours 
with them on Diamond Creek, one of the party 
being killed and another fatally wounded, the 
others, however, defeating the Indians, recov- 
ering their stock and capturing a bunch of In- 
dian ponies. Soon after this occurrence Mr. 
Fisher returned to Bear Lake county, where 
for two years he engaged in ranching and log- 
ging operations, thereafter in the fall of 1867 
removing to Ogden, where he remained until 
after his marriage, on March 2, 1869, with 
Miss Luanda Cady, who was born on October 
3, 1852, at Portage Creek, Pa., the daughter of 
Oliver and Phoebe Ann (Campbell) Cady, the 
former a native of New York state and the 
latter of Pennsylvania. The mother died at 
the age of thirty-five years, at Portage Creek, 
Pa., while the father is still living in New 
York state, at the age of eighty-two years. 
For one year after his marriage Mr. Fisher 
was engaged in sawmilling operations in Og- 
den Valley and then filed on a homestead in 
Park Valley, which, after vainly endeavoring 
to supply with water by earnest labor for eigh- 
teen months, he abandoned and located on the 



494 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



promontory west of Brigham City, where for 
six -sears he successfully conducted cattlerais- 
■ ing, thereafter purchasing a farm at Five-mile, 
in Cache Valley, on which he remained from 
June. 1886, until Christmas, 1887, thence pro- 
ceeding to Willow Creek, where a brother was 
located, from there in March, 1887, coming to 
the island (Poole's Island), where he home- 
steaded 160 acres, which is his present home. 
The first season he plowed five acres and raised 
a fine crop of oats and also rutabagas that 
weighed five pounds, while two years later he 
raised five acres of corn and from that time 
to the present he has had a crop of corn each 
year. All kinds of vegetables attain a magnifi- 
cent growth and he now has 170 fine orchard 
trees just coming into bearing and, to show 
the great adaptability of this country to horti- 
culture, we will state that Mr. Fisher in 1889 
set out an orchard at Menan which has been in 
active bearing for ten years, and in all schemes 
for the benefit of the public he has ever taken 
a prominent part, while in the Church of the 
Latter Day* Saints he was ordained an elder 
when but fourteen years of age and later as 
one of the Seventies, being the first home mis- 
sionary called in this section of Idaho and he is 
at present a teacher in the Annis branch. Mrs. 
Fisher has also done effective work for the 
church as treasurer of the local relief society, 
which office she has held from its organization, 
being also a member of the primary and of the 
Young Ladies' Association and the eldest 
daughter is the popular secretary of the Sun- 
day school. The family deservedly maintains 
a standing of repute in social, societv and 
church circles, having many friends who es- 
teem and honor them for their genuine worth 
and sterling qualities. The names and births, 
etc., of the children of Mr. Fisher's household 
are as follows: Joseph O., born March 12, 
1870; Vardis S.. born October 25, 1871, died 
when fourteen vears old; Isaiah M., born Au- 



gust 16, 1873; Ammon A., born February 4. 
1876, died April 13. 1886; John C. born Jan- 
uary 18, 1878; Hezekiah R., born August 25, 
1879. died in infancy; Alma L.. born June 1. 
1882; Phoebe L., born November 7. 1885; 
Lucy V., born December 5, 1887; Myrtle I., 
born April 25. 1S89; Fannie J., born Septem- 
ber 3, 1891 ; Charles H.. born June 26, 1894. 

THE WILLIAM GRAY FAMILY. 

Wherever in America you find Scotch peo- 
ple or the descendants of Scottish people, they 
are a capable, strong, independent, honest and 
industrious race, shrewdlv taking advantage 
by their intelligence of the best opportunities of 
acquiring financial reinforcement, yet citizens 
of the best type, doing wrong to none and tak- 
ing wrong from no one in silence. And the 
family with which we now have to do well ex- 
emplifies the truth of this statement, ever la- 
boring in harmony with each other, hard- 
working, hospitable, and reckoned among- the 
representative farmers, horticulturists and 
stockmen of the Upper Valley of the Snake 
River. 

William Gray was born and reared in Dun- 
bartonshire. Scotland, where in earl)- youth 
he learned the weaver's trade and wrought at 
that vocation in his native place, marrying 
Janet Anderson, a daughter of Mathew and 
Janet (Anderson) Andrews, in 1858, and dili- 
gently was plying the shuttle when the first 
tidings of the truth of Mormonism was pre- 
sented to him by faithful missionaries of that 
faith, with such effect that the family was con- 
verted, William being ordained an elder and 
doing g-ood religious work in Scotland for a 
number of years, and in 1873 they crossed the 
ocean to America, tarrying not by the way un- 
til they reached Utah. They located at Ogden 
for some vears, thereafter residing in various 
places until one of the sons came to the Upper 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



495 



Valley of the Snake River in 1885, where at 
Menan he purchased the improvements on a 
tract of 160 acres, securing a relinquishment, 
after which he filed upon the land and com- 
menced arrangements for the reception of the 
other members of the family, who came thither 
in 1887, all working effectively and harmo- 
niously in the development and culture of the 
land. The father died in May, 1889, at sixty- 
five years of age, while the mother is still sur- 
viving on the original home two and one-quar- 
ter miles from Menan. 

During the first years of their residence 
here they could not raise crops and they often 
went hungry, for the fish were few and game 
not easily procured. But the exigency was 
bravely met. The brothers went out to labor 
during the summer seasons and in the winter 
worked in the dairy, one season being em- 
ployed on the construction work of the Butte 
branch of the Northern Pacific, acquiring suf- 
ficient money in this manner to tide them over 
until the farm gave them good returns, and 
they have now a highly productive property and 
are conducting very prosperous farming and 
stoekraising operations, raising fine crops of 
hay, grain and small fruit, and also having a 
thrifty orchard of well-selected fruit trees now 
in bearing, and running a band of about 1,700 
sheep. 

The children of William and Janet 
(Anderson) Gray, all born at the old Dunbar- 
tonshire home, are as follows : James, born 
November 9, 1859; William, born March 5, 
1863 ; Janet (Mrs. L. A. Snyder), born March 
4, 1864; George J., born January 23, 1867; 
Elizabeth, born October 4, 1869. All are ac- 
tively engaged in the promulgation of the doc- 
trines, of the Mormon church, William serving 
on mission work in Ireland and Scotland from 
December, 1899, to February, 1901. 

William Gray, the second son of his par- 
ents, has passed much of his life in the service 



of his church, being a teacher for several years, 
after which he was ordained elder, holding 
that responsible office for twelve years, there- 
after being made one of the Seventies and sent 
on mission work to Ireland, his personal ex- 
periences in this connection not being of a 
very pleasant character, and of the two years 
he has been at home since returning from his 
foreign field of labor eighteen months have 
been given to the cause of home missions. 

George J. Gray, on July 23, 1892, at Lo- 
gan, Utah, wedded with Miss Rose Hawker, 
whose people came from England to Utah in 
1867 and settled at Menan, Idaho, in 1884, 
where they now reside. Mr. Gray's place is 
located one and one-half miles from Menan 
and he has a highly developed and attractive 
property, with plenty of water, as he and his 
brothers were active in the enlargement of the 
present ditch, constructing also a ditch one 
mile long to bring water from the Long Island 
Irrigating Canal, in which company they are 
important shareholders, and he assisted in 
building the Farmers' Canal at Blackfoot, 
where he resided for some months. He was 
ordained an elder of his church at Menan in 
1888 and is now holding that office. His chil- 
dren are George S., born April 7, 1893; Ar- 
thur, born April 30, 1895 ; Florence, born Au- 
gust 2, 1896; Rosella, born November 21, 
1897; Jessie M., born September 10, 1898; 
Isabel, born April 10, 1901 ; Lillian, born Oc- 
tober 2, 1902. Mr. Gray is one of the promi- 
nent husbandmen of his section, popular, public- 
spirited and successful through his intelligent 
and well-planned endeavors in his chosen voca- 
tion. 

JOHN MATSON. 

The character of most of the Swedish emi- 
grants who allied themselves with the Mormon 
church and in consequence of their alliance left 
their native land to become residents of the 



496 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



Salt Lake country of Utah was strong and ad- 
mirable, for they were intelligent and inde- 
pendent in thought, people possessed of a good 
practical and technical education and who 
added to the wealth of any community where 
they chose to make their residence. It is with 
one of this class that we have to do when we 
indite the plain, unassuming, but practical and 
useful record of John Matson, now a citizen 
of La Belle, Fremont county, Idaho. He was 
born in Sweden on February 13, 1838, a son 
of Matthias and Giristina Lindstrom, who 
lived long lives of industry in their native land. 
He received a good education in the excellent 
national schools of Sweden and through long 
years of apprenticeship and application became 
thoroughly conversant with all branches of 
mason work, which he conducted for some 
time in his native land, coming to America and 
to Utah with a party of Mormon emigrants 
in 1884 and locating at Ogden, where he was 
soon engaged in railroad construction work, at 
which he was prosperously occupied for four 
years, after which he came to La Belle, ar- 
riving there on December 5, 1888. He at once 
purchased a town lot for a permanent home 
and here he has since resided, being a practical 
element of value in the building up of the 
town, as he built the foundation under the 
first building- erected in the town and has put 
the foundation under all other buildings which 
required stone foundations built here from that 
time to the present writing, among them being 
the schoolhouse and the church. Mr. Matson 
was early of great usefulness in the Mormon 
church, joining it in Sweden September 12, 
1875, in 1876 becoming a deacon and later be- 
ing ordained in succession as a teacher and 
priest, doing excellent service in these offices 
in his native land. He is a Republican in polit- 
ical faith. 

Mr. Matson was married in Sweden on De- 
cember 29, 1 86 1, with Christina E. Abramson, 



one of a family of eleven children, whose fa- 
ther was fifty-three years old at the time of 
his death, in 1853, and the mother had accom- 
plished forty-eight years of useful activities 
when called from earth, in 1853. A brief rec- 
ord of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mat- 
son will suitably close this sketch : Martin O., 
born in Sweden on September 2y, 1862. mar- 
ried and lives at La Belle, Idaho; Alma C. 
born June 9, 1864, died at twenty-five years 
of age and is buried at Pocatello, Idaho : Jo- 
hanna M., born July 21, 1866, married Frank 
Lundquist; Emma C, born October 5. 1870, 
married George Browning; Carl R., born Feb- 
ruary 18, 1874, was drowned when twenty- 
four years old, near La Belle: Axel F., born 
December 18, 1875, resides at Annis, Idaho, 
his wife, Clara May, having died when twen- 
ty-three years old; John N., born December 6. 
1877; Yerda S.. born December 12, 1879; Sie- 
gert W., bom February 15, 1882. died May 
8, 1883; Knut R., born February 16. 1884. 

HYRUM EDWARDS. 

There is perhaps no resident of the Upper 
Valley of the Snake River of Idaho who is 
better entitled to be called a self-made man 
than is Mr. Hyrum Edwards, of La Belle. Fre- 
mont county, since from the age of fifteen years 
he has been the architect of his own fortunes, 
a valuable contributor to various lines of in- 
dustrial activity, through all of his life mani- 
festing qualities of a high character and per- 
sonal ability which have won for him an ex- 
alted position in the regard of his numerous 
friends. Mr. Edwards was born in Schuylkill 
county. Pa., on January 21. 1853. a son of 
John and Margaret (Roberts) Edwards, both 
of whom were natives of Wales and represent- 
atives of families long existent in that rugged 
and ancient country, the father being a coal- 
miner and following that vocation in Wales 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



497 



and in the anthracite coal mines of Pennsyl- 
vania until 1855. when the)' came to Utah, 
crossing the plains with one ox team and one 
cow team, and, locating at Brigham City as 
pioneers of the Cache Valley. They were use- 
ful and popular citizens, the father being called 
to his last resting-place in 1886, while the 
venerable mother is still a resident there, hav- 
ing passed the eighty-second milestone of her 
life. 

Mr. Edwards, when but fifteen years of 
age, entered the service of the Diamond Co., 
driving a freighting outfit on the Corinne and 
Helena route during the years of 1868, 1869, 
1870 and 1871, rendering faithful services and 
receiving the encomiums of his employers. In 
1872 he became a locomotive fireman on a 
railroad and after three years he was promoted 
to engineer, and in this highly responsible po- 
sition he was for eighteen months employed 
by the Utah and Western road, thereafter, from 
1876 to 1893, running an engine on the Union 
Pacific, attaining a high reputation as a careful 
and valuable employee, and winning the regard 
and warm friendship of his superiors and his 
associates. Feeling, however, that an agricul- 
tural life was freer from care and dangers, and 
presented a chance for home enjoyment that 
life on the road never could give, in 1883 Mr. 
Edwards came to the yet unsettled and unde- 
veloped Snake River Valley and examined its 
possibilities and capabilities, using his home- 
stead right on 160 acres near Rudy, deciding 
to here make his permanent home. In 1884 
be moved his family thither and here he has 
resided, engaged in the improvement and cul- 
tivation of his land and the raising of cattle of 
a superior breed, varying this occupation, how- 
ever, by running an engine on the Montana 
Union for one winter, and during the summer 
of 1886 he ran an engine in the construction 
work of the Bitter Root branch of the Northern 
Pacific, while in 1889 he returned to the Mon- 



tana Union for the summer season, which con- 
cluded his railroad work. 

Mr. Edwards has shown good taste and 
excellent judgment in the development of his 
home, among other elements of value introduc- 
ing as one of his leading improvements a fine 
young orchard of carefully selected fruit, 
which gives fair promise of exceptional excel- 
lence. From his first residence in the valley 
he has aligned himself with the progressive and 
wide-awake portion of the community, by his 
forceful aid and endeavors assisting all mat- 
ters tending to benefit the people, in his polit- 
ical adherency giving loyal support to the Re- 
publican party and holding the office of a jus- 
tice of the peace from 1894 to 1896, inclusive, 
ever occupying a representative place among 
the prominent men of his section of the state. 
On December 25, 1874, Mr. Edwards mar- 
ried Miss Louisa Coxe, born at Williamsburg, 
N. Y., on September 7, 1857, a daughter of 
Edward and Lucinda (Willis) Coxe, natives of 
England, who emigrated to America and set- 
tled at Williamsburg. At the end of four 
years' residence there they crossed the conti- 
nent to Utah, on the long journey over the emi- 
grant trail from the Missouri River forming a 
part of a handcart company, thereafter taking 
up their residence at Salt Lake City, where the 
father is now residing at seventy-six years of 
age, the mother dying, when Mrs. Edwards 
was but ten years old, at the age of forty-two 
years. During their wedded life Mr. and Mrs. 
Edwards have experienced mingled joys 
and sorrows. Eight children have come 
to their home to brighten their lives, 
but three of them have been called away 
by death. Their names, etc., follow: Es- 
ther M., born April 1, 1876, died when 
eighteen months old; Hyrum C, born 
December 28, 1878, died at eighteen years of 
age; Joseph W., born October 26, 1880; Mar- 
garet, born August 6, 1882 ; Ernest V., born 



498 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OE BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



September 15. 1884; John O., bom September 
11. 1886; Arthur E., born October 10, 1888; 
Harold, born September 22, 1896, died when 
less than ten months old. 

STEPHEN J. SUMMERS. 

When the early explorers first found their 
way through the sagebrush-covered plains 
stretching out on either side of the Upper 
Snake River, the desolate cactus-producing 
desert seemed it it only a dreary but altogether 
a worthless tract of irredeemable waste, and if 
any one had then told them that in the open- 
ing years of the Twentieth Century its surface 
would lie dotted with pleasant homes, fruitful 
fields and productive orchards, the statement 
would have been received with derision, as the 
wild dreams of a deranged mentality. How- 
ever, this has been fulfilled as a pleasant reality 
by the wisdom, the sagacity and the unceasing 
industry of the courageous people who have 
here made their homes within the last twenty 
years, and among the number who have given 
their earnest and effective labor to this great 
work must be mentioned Stephen J. Summers, 
whose attractive home at Rudy. Idaho, with its 
twenty acres of valuable orchard grove, dem- 
onstrates what brain power to plan and intelli- 
gent and willing hands to carry these plans into 
execution have here accomplished in even a 
few years of steady, unintermitting induustry. 
Mr. Summers was born in the southern part of 
that little country of sturdy, hardworking and 
intelligent people, the ancient kingdom of 
Wales, on January 12, 1837, the son of John 
and Ann (Howells) Summers, representatives 
of time-honored families of the land, who emi- 
grated in 1872 as a result of their adoption of 
the Mormon religion, making their home as 
farmers in the Salt Lake country for about 
eighteen months, when the father died from 
consumption, at the age of sixty-seven years. 



the mother long surviving, dying in 1884. at 
seventy-eight years of age. 

In 1873 Air. Summers came from Wales to 
Ogden, Utah, buying railroad land, which, 
after improving with a new house and other 
valuable additions, among them ditches and a 
water right, he sold and came to Rudy. Idaho, 
where, in 1897. he located a homestead on 
Birch Creek, where he resided three years, 
thence removing to his present home where he 
has accomplishd a rapid development, erecting 
a fine modern residence and planting an or- 
chard of well-selected fruit trees on twenty 
acres of land, at the same time devoting at- 
tention to general farming and the successful 
raising of superior brands of horses and cattle, 
being one of the representative husbandmen 
of the ample valley. 

On April 20. 1857. Mr. Summers was 
married, in Wales, to Miss Sarah Triggs. and 
to them have been born the following named 
children : Martha. George. Annie. William. 
Sarah A.. John H.. Hester M.. Lawfard. Flor- 
ence. Mary Ellen ("deceased.) 

HENRY M. PERRY. 

A brilliant writer has well said that 
faithfulness to duty and strict adherence to a 
fixed purpose in life will do more to advance a 
man's interests than will wealth or adventi- 
tious circumstances and that the successful men 
of today are not alone those who have amassed 
vast sums of wealth, but include also those who 
have attained a home and competency in those 
quiet rural enjoyments which rest and console 
as well as supply the material needs of exist- 
ence and those who planned and labored dili- 
gently day after day, year after year, and have 
fulfilled and accomplished those plans in spite 
of many obstacles. Among this happy number 
may justly be classed Mr. Henry M. Perry, of 
Rudv. Idaho, since he has from childhood man- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



499 



ifested a faithfulness to every call of duty and 
demonstrated a far-reaching practicability and 
sagacity which have made him the possessor 
of a valuable realty and a high niche in the 
regards of his compeers and associates. 

Mr. Perry was born on December 3, 1856, 
at Perry, Box Elder county, Utah, the son of 
Henry E. and Elizabeth (Zabrisky) Perry, na- 
tives of the state of New York, who in 1856 
were members of one of those slow-moving 
caravans of Mormon immigrants in which the 
motive power was the slow, steady and com- 
pelling force of numerous oxen, and who after 
arriving in Utah located at Brigham City, 
where the father died in 1875, at forty-eight 
years of age, the mother surviving until 1902, 
when, at seventy-four years of life, she joined 
her departed friends in the land across the 
river of death. Mr. Perry, who was the eldest 
sen of his father's family, at the father's death 
stepped into the place of the head of the fam- 
ily and faithfully and loyally gave his sturdy 
and steady support to the widowed mother and 
the younger members of the home circle until 
they were safely come to years of self-suste- 
nance, never faltering nor failing in his labors 
although ofttimes the load was heavy and the 
burden not an easy one. In 1885 he came to 
Rudy, now in Fremont county, Idaho, and used 
his right of homestead on 160 acres of thick 
sagebrush land, the following year removing 
his family to this new home, and here his con- 
secutive and well-planned efforts have brought 
into existence a valuable property, highly im- 
proved and irrigated, having commodious and 
comfortable buildings and other necessary im- 
provements for the proper carrying on of the 
diversified farming characteristic of the Snake 
River Valley, bounteous crops annually re- 
sponding to his culture after the first few years 
of deprivations were passed, and prosperity at- 
tending his labors. In the irrigation plans of 
the early days he took an active part, aided in 



the construction of the Great Feeder Canal, and 
served as a director, the treasurer and the 
president of the stock company which built it, 
being also a shareholder in the Burgess Canal 
Co., also holding place as a director of the 
Rigby Hardware Co. He was elected to his 
first term as a justice of the peace in 1898 and 
has annually from that time been elected to suc- 
ceed himself in that office, and he has also ren- 
dered efficient service as a school trustee for 
two terms, while in the Church of Latter Day 
Saints, of which he has been a lifelong and a 
consistent member, he has held places of dis- 
tinctive trust, being ordained an elder in 1876, 
one of the Seventies in 1884, in 1892 not only 
being ordained as a high priest but set apart 
as a counsellor to the bishop, in every office 
serving efficiently and to the manifest advan- 
tage of the church, and he has also been a dele- 
gate to various conferences and other represent- 
ative bodies of the church. It is worthy of 
note that at the early age of sixteen years Mrs. 
Perry was -chosen president of the Primary 
Association, holding that office until her re- 
moval to Idaho, and here she was chosen presi- 
dent of the Primary and later president of the 
Young Ladies' Association. She also taught 
day school for a number of terms. 

A very congenial matrimonial union was 
consummated by Mr. Perry on February 24, 
188 1, when he wedded Miss Fannie Young, a 
lady of bright mentality and culture, who was 
born on September 8, 1859, at Centerville, 
Utah, a daughter of Thomas and Martha 
(Webb) Young, her parents coming from Eng- 
land and crossing the plains in one of the hand- 
cart companies, thereafter residing for a few 
months at Salt Lake City, thence removing 
successively to Willard and to Perry, where the 
mother died in 1898, at seventy-six years of 
age, the father still maintaining his home at 
Perry, having attained sixty-seven years of 
life. Mrs. Perrv has given much thought and 



5°o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



honorable service to the interests of the various 
societies connected with the church, serving 
for several years as secretary of the Young 
Ladies' Mutual Improvement Society, also sec- 
retary of the Relief Society, which office she 
holds at this writing, and she is also a faithful 
and popular Sunday school teacher. The chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Perry have numbered 
ten, namely : Henry E., born December 2, 
-188 1 ; Maude M., born July 18, 1883 ; Leslie 
T., born February 17, 1885; Albert S., born 
March 7, 1887; Heber M.. born August 13, 
1888; Melbie E., born February 13, 1892; Eu- 
gene E. and Eunice J., twins, born March 9. 
T894; and Velda A. and Verne F., twins, who 
were born December 27, 1899. 

CYRIL J. CALL. 

A self-made man in all that the term im- 
plies, and battling with the adverse conditions 
of life from early youth. Cyril J. Call has won 
a competency and a valuable estate by legiti- 
mate industry and business methods, by 'labor- 
ing early and late, day after day, and by the 
exercise of sagacity, foresight and discrimi- 
nating endeavors. He was born on December 
20, i860, at Willard City. Box Elder county. 
Utah, one of the twelve children (eight of 
whom are now living) of Omer and Sarah 
Marie (Ferring) Call, natives and long-time 
residents of Illinois, where the father was both 
a miller and a farmer. In 1849 ne crossed the 
plains with ox teams, settling first at Bountiful 
and thereafter accompanied his father and twin 
brother Homer to Willard. where all have since 
resided, the mother of C. J. Call dying in Sep- 
tember, 1880. 

In 1879 Mr. Call, of this biographical men- 
tion, commenced business for himself by engag- 
ing- in construction work on the Utah Northern 
Railroad for three months, and the next two 
years were passed in farming and in getting 



out railroad ties, thereafter, in May, 1884, 
coming to the site of Rigby, and using his 
homestead right on his present estate of 160 
acres. As there was then not an irrigating 
canal to bring water to the homes of the set- 
tlers, during the winter the people were com- 
pelled to haul ice from the Snake River and 
melt it to obtain water for their stock and for 
their own use, and the second winter they fed 
the stock on straw, as no hay could be raised 
for lack of water. They hauled poles for fenc- 
ing for five miles, and in 1888 work was begun 
on irrigating canals, and they were successful 
enough to get sufficient water to irrigate what 
crops had been put in, and later the canal and 
ditches were finished. Mr. Call being an earnest 
laborer in the accomplishment of this object. 
This canal was called the Rigby Canal and Mr. 
Call still holds stock in the company, of which 
for three years he served as a director, being 
also one of the committee of five persons who 
secured the present townsite of Rigby. He 
has ever been active in the church circles of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, having worthily 
held the office for a period of ten years and 
thereafter being ordained to be a member of 
the Seventies, at the time when George Cordon 
was made bishop. 

Mr. Call was married on March 18. 1880. 
to Miss Mary Ellen Wood, born on December 
30. 1869. a daughter of John P. and Ellen 
(Hawkinson) Wood, the father being a native 
of Lancashire, England, who came to the 
United States in 1840. coming to Willard in 
the same company with Omer Call, and marry- 
ing the mother of Mrs. Call at Salt Lake City. 
The mother is now residing at Willard. hav- 
ing accomplished sixtv-seven years of life. 
Mrs. Call is a lady of education and culture, 
having been called to fill offices of prominence 
in connection with the church, being the presi- 
dent of the Primary and the treasurer of the 
Relief Societv for six years. The familv is rec- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5oi 



ognized as one of distinctive worth and sterling 
character, with many friends to partake of the 
ever-present hospitality of their home, and it 
has been greatly enlarged and blessed by the 
births of their following named children : Sarah 
E., born June 20, 1881, married Charles F. 
Hill, of Rigby; Laura P., born March 19, 
1883; Ida Marie, born January 13, 1885; John 
O., born March 16, 1887; Chloe C, born April 
29. 1889; Elsie E., born July 20, 1891 ; Cyril 
J., born August 22, 1894; Lila N., born No- 
vember 6, 1895; Wilmer B., born July 27, 
1898; Ellis H., born June 5, 1901. 

OMER S. CALL. 

Conspicuously identified with the early 
growth and prosperity of the Rigby district of 
Fremont county, Idaho, and with the other 
early settlers suffering the privations peculiar 
to the life of primal civilization, before the 
hand of man had time to transform the crude 
and desert country into a region where ad- 
vanced humanity could draw from the fertile 
soil its annual sustenance, Omer S. Call, the 
immediate subject of this review, was born on 
September 25, 1857, at Willard, Utah, where 
his parents, Omer and Sarah (Ferrin) Call, 
who were natives of Illinois, were among - the 
earliest settlers of the town in 1850, thereafter 
marrying and passing long years of useful ac- 
tivity and beneficent kindness among the peo- 
ple, who ever held them in the highest regard. 
The mother, who was born December 1, 1840. 
at Spring-field, 111., departed this life Septem- 
ber 22, 1880, and is buried at Willard, Utah, 
having been the mother of eleven children, and 
there the father, who was born January 9, 
1834, still resides on the old homestead he first 
occupied. The subject's grandfather. Cyril 
Call, was born at Woodstock, Vt, June 29, 
1785, and died at Bountiful, Davis county, 
Utah, while his wife, Sally (Tiffing) Call, was 

1 



born in Franklin county, Vt., November 27, 
1790, and died March 27, 1866, also at Boun- 
tiful, Utah. Omer S. Call was the chairman 
of the committee which purchased and took 
charge of the cemetery grounds at Rigby in 
1887. The townsite was originally purchased 
from Josiah Call, and the deeds of the public 
square were held in trust for the people by R. 
K. Homer, Geo. E. Hill, Sr., and Omer S. 
Call until February, 1904. 

Mr. Call is of sturdy English stock, being 
a direct descendant of one Thomas Call and 

wife, (Bennett) Call, who were the first 

family of that name to emigrate to America. 
Coming from Sandwich, England, June 9, 
1636, they settled in Charlestown in 1637, this 
being the original source of the Call family in 
this country. 

The childhood, youth and early manhood 
of the subject of this review were passed as 
were those of other youngsters of the place and 
period, plenty of work and a limited amount of 
education being the advantages of life in a 
pioneer country, and after he was twenty-one. 
years of age he was for six years engaged in 
various employments, freighting, railroad con- 
struction and lumbering, in the spring of 1884 
coming to Rigby and locating the homestead 
on which he now resides. He was one of the 
prime agitators of and movers in the construc- 
tion of a canal to bring water to the land, in 
association with the present Bishop Cordon 
and laying out the Rigby Canal, and it was 
only after two years of hard labor that the ca- 
nal was so completed as to supply the necessary 
water to produce crops. During- that time the 
settlers went to Utah in the fall of each year, 
and from their earnings during their stay of 
two months they purchased the provisions to 
carry their families through the winter, and 
all of the flour used in the pioneer days was 
purchased at and hauled from the nearest mill, 
at Malad, Idaho. 



Z02 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



In all public movements Mr. Call has been 
alert and vigorous, took an active part in the 
location of the Rigby townsite, was the chair- 
man of the committee holding the deeds of the 
townsite cemetery, and was one of the persons 
owning the hall erected for theatrical and en- 
tertainment purposes, while at the time the 
railroad was under consideration he was 
chosen as chairman of the committee to secure 
the right of way. He has diligently improved 
the land on which he made his home with suit- 
able buildings, sheds, corrals, etc., to amply 
accommodate the needs of his family and the 
demands of the various departments of hus- 
bandry to which he has devoted his attention, 
in connection with farming being engaged in 
the raising of horses, cattle and hogs and also 
engaged in brick manufacture. In politics he 
supports the Republican part}- and in the 
Church of Latter Day Saints he is a member 
of the Seventies. 

Mr. Call married, on December 31, 1884, 
Miss Anna M. Matsen, a daughter of Hans P. 
and Anna (Ericsson) Matsen, who came to Utah 
at an early day in its history and settled at 
Cottonwood, where Mrs. Call was born April 
25, 1867, thereafter removing to Willard, 
where they are now living. The children of 
this very congenial marriage are Sarah A., 
born at Willard, Utah, September 18, 1886: 
Omer M., born July 17, 1888; Sylvester, born 
April 30, 1891 ; Irena P., born April 2, 1893: 
Heber L., born March 6, 1895; Floyd, born 
June 8, 1897; Cyrus V., born September 16, 
1899; George Charles, born March 1. 1902; 
Delta Rhea, born April 27, 1904. All of the 
children except the first named were born at 
Rigby. 

EDMUND PAUL. 

It has been a diversified but eventful life 
that Edmund Paul has lived, but it indicates 
the versatility of the men of the West, and 



during its various experiences manifests a de- 
terminate industry, a fertility of resource and 
an adaptability to circumstances which deserves 
if it does not always win success. He was 
born at Redrath. Cornwall, England, on Feb- 
ruary 6, 1840. a son of Walter and Elizabeth 
Ann (Coyne) Paul (see sketch of Walter Paul, 
elsewhere in this volume), and after coming to 
Utah at an early age he commenced life's ac- 
tivities for himself at the age of thirteen years. 
For two years he worked for various ranchers. 
then engaged with his brother, Walter G., in 
sawmilling operations for two years, and at 
the time of'Johnston's invasion of Utah he was 
employed in hauling grain to the southern part 
of Utah, while subsequently to this he pa 
seven years with William Jennings in Salt 
Lake City in the acquisition of the trade of 
butchering and the knowledge of the meat busi- 
ness. Thereafter he worked alternately at this 
and at carpentry, which he had learned during 
the intervals of other occupations, until 1870. 
when he and a companion, John Hancock, were 
"grub-staked" in prospecting by John R. Paul, 
his brother and William Jennings, they discov- 
ering the Bald Eagle and the Golden Gate 
mines and were offered $100,000 for the P>ald 
Eagle, but would not sell. After working the 
mine for some time the}' did sell at much lower 
figures, of which Mr. Paul was to receive $3,- 
500 for his share. 

In 1872 Mr. Paul engaged at Bingham 
Canyon, Utah, with William Goddard in a 
miner's supplv store, having purchased previ- 
ously a small lot on which to erect a butcher 
shop. Through the sale by Goddard of one- 
half of the business, legal complications arose, 
three months later the courts awarding Mr. 
Paul the stock of goods, but he was again crip- 
pled by the foreclosure of a mortgage he had 
given and three months later he sold his inter- 
ests. He then engaged in driving a four-mule 
team in hauling provisions to the choppers and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5°3 



other workmen of Jennings & Cooley, who held 
a contract to build a telegraph line from Salt 
Lake City to Ruby Valley, and while this work 
was in operation the Indians were very hostile, 
and many skirmishes resulted, but through 
their personal friendship for Mr. Paul he was 
never injured, although sometimes it appeared 
as if his life was near an end- From Bingham 
Canyon Mr. Paul came to Idaho, and, with his 
brothers, took building contracts from the 
Oregon Short Line Railroad; all of the town 
of Aramo was built by them and nearly all of 
the railroad buildings from Franklin north to 
the Montana line. Returning after the com- 
pletion of this labor to the Cache Valley, he 
was there employed as a carpenter and builder 
for three years. 

On March 17, 1883, he came to Rexburg, 
where his first labor was the building of a ferry 
across the north (Henry) fork of the Snake 
River, being associated in this line with 
Thomas E. Ricks, and it proved a profitable 
investment. On March 27th of that year he 
commenced to break ground for farming pur- 
poses, taking twenty acres for himself and 
twenty acres for his brother Walter in the 
general field, which at that time was the only 
ground under irrigation. Mr. Paul put in the 
first headgates of the canal, which was only 
three miles long, and also was the cook of the 
construction party, the diet consisting largely 
of venison and other wild meat and fish. In 
1884 Mr. Paul framed the first grist-mill of 
the county, a man from Cache Valley putting 
in the machinery, and after the completion of 
the mill he took up a homestead of 160 acres 
of land on Teton Island, "farming it" for two 
years, and also established the first meat mar- 
ket of Rexburg and the first livery stable. He 
also started a cattle ranch at Teton, devoting 
his attention to full-blooded 'and high-grade 
Durham stock, but by reason of deep snows 



preventing ranging and having no feed, he lost 
most of his herd, and after remaining on the 
ranch three years, with his son, he returned to 
Rexburg, where he helped build the co-opera- 
tive store. Thence he went to St. Anthony, 
where during the three years of his stay he 
assisted in the construction of most of the 
buildings of that rapidly growing town, there- 
after engaging again in the meat business for 
four years, packing much pork for various par- 
ties. During the past two years he has given 
his attention entirely to carpentry, working on 
nearly all of the new structures of Rexburg. 
From this rapid review it will be seen that Mr. 
Paul is an alert, decided, accurate business 
man, who views public matters of a local char- 
acter in a broad-minded manner, being liberal 
and prompt in aiding anything- his judgment 
tells him is for the benefit of the people. In 
national politics he identifies himself with the 
Republican party, but cares nothing for polit- 
ical prominence or the honors or emoluments 
of public office. 

On July 16, 1864, Mr. Paul married Miss 
Martha Z. Huntington, of Nauvoo. 111., whose 
father was an Indian interpreter in service of 
the United States government and. whom she 
accompanied to Utah in 1847, and later to 
Pueblo with the Mormon brigade, of which he 
was a member, at Pueblo watching for months 
by his bedside while he was suffering from a 
severe illness. The children of this marriage 
are Fanny E. (Mrs. George A. Little), Zina 
P. (deceased), Georgiana F. (deceased), Susan 
(deceased), Martha P. (Mrs. James Purser), 
Dimmick H. The mother did not survive the 
birth of the last child, but nursed him before 
she died. On October 11, 1884, Mr. Paul and 
Miss Mary E. Westover, of Mendon, Utah, 
were wedded and their children are Walter R.. 
Mary L., Grace, Edith A., Findley W.. Oak- 
lev and Louis. 



5°4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



LOUIS M. BRIAN. 

Actively engaged in a field of industrial 
endeavors which require the keenest business 
ability and the most sagacious financiering to 
conduct in these days of great competition, by 
his straightforward methods of conducting 
trade winning not alone success but the per- 
manent friendship of his numerous patrons, 
Louis M. Brian is a true son of the West, his 
birth occurring' on March 16, 1877, at Mill 
Creek, Utah, being the son of Daniel G. and 
Martha (Ashworth) Brian, natives of the East- 
ern states who, in compliance with the injunc- 
tions laid upon the faithful by the teachings of 
the Mormon missionaries, came to the land of 
Zion in an early day. coming "the plains 
across" with one of the slow-marching caval- 
cades of Mormon emigrants, their oxen taking 
months to travel the mighty distance separat- 
ing the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers from 
the Great Salt Lake. The father first engaged 
as a teacher in the schools of Salt Lake City, 
thereafter owning and superintending the op- 
erations of two sawmills and a shingle mill, 
subsequently to this coming to Lewisville, Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, among the pioneer settlers 
in 1885. there purchasing a city lot, erecting a 
residence and engaging as a dealer in sewing 
machines until the time of his death, in 1889. 
Louis M. Brian remained with his mother un- 
til he had attained his eleventh year, aiding in 
farming operations and in cleaning away the 
sagebrush growth from the arid land, and at 
the age of twenty-one years engaged in the 
picturesque employment of "riding the range," 
continuing to be thus employed until 1900, 
when he accepted a position with the Singer 
Sewing Machine Co. as their representative in 
the east half of Fremont and Bingham coun- 
ties, this state. He is now engaged in caring 
for its interests in this connection. During 
their construction Mr. Brian gave his assist- 



ance in the building of the Lewisville Canal 
and the Great Feeder, and is a shareholder in 
both companies, and in many and various ways 
also he has contributed to public matters of lo- 
cal importance and is known as a popular and 
generous citizen whose heart is in the right 
place. He views national and other political 
situations from the viewpoint of the Republi- 
can party, heartily supporting its candidates at 
the successive elections. 

On Christmas day. 1898, a pleasing event 
to Mr. Brian occurred, none other than his 
marriage with Miss Margaret Kinghorn. a 
daughter of Alexander and Jane (Campbell) 
Kinghorn, a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, her 
parents joining the Mormon church at the 
early pilgrimage to Salt Lake City, where they 
also came from Scotland", making their home 
until 1884, when they transferred their resi- 
dence to Lewisville. Idaho, where thev availed 
themselves of the homestead right to 160 acres 
of land, the father with three sons acquiring 
title to 640 acres, one whole section, and here 
they are conducting prosperous farming and 
stockraising. 

Three winsome children have come to 
bless the fireside of Mr. and Mrs. Brian, 
namely: Josie Belle, born October 15, [899; 
Lester Monroe, born February 19, 1902. and 
Maggie May. born July 11, 1904. 

WILLIAM T. REEVES. 

For nearly twenty years one of the promi- 
nent attorneys and leaders of the Democratic 
part}- of southeastern Idaho, having been the 
nominee of his party, not onlv for the office of 
district judge, but also twice for the high posi- 
tion of attorney general of the state, the elo- 
quent and talented gentleman whose name 
beads this review has been a very active factor 
in numerous fields of the development of the 
section of Idaho where he has maintained his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



505 



home, ever standing in the front rank of the 
representative citizens of the state. 

Descending- from that solid Scotch-Irish 
stock which has formed such a valuable constit- 
uent element in the building up of the Ameri- 
can republic, William T. Reeves was born at 
Kinkleville, Ky., on January 21, 1855, being 
the son of William H. H. and Penelope B. 
(White) Reeves, ^the father a native of Rich- 
mond, Va., and the son of George Reeves, 
an emigrant from the north of Ireland to the 
Old Dominion, while the mother had her nativ- 
ity in Tennessee. George Reeves brought his 
family and made his home in Kentucky, where 
he and his wife, as well as their children, long 
maintained their residence as useful and bene- 
ficial and prosperous citizens. Here also the 
parents of Judge Reeves passed their lives of 
intelligent endeavor and passed to the silent 
land, the father accomplishing seventy-eight 
years of life and the mother sixty-one. 

The literary education of Judge Reeves was 
acquired at the Kentucky schools, supplemented 
by attendance at the excellent college located 
at Blandville, in that state, where also he en- 
gaged in the diligent study of law under the 
competent tutelage of an older brother, who 
was there established as a lawyer of no mean 
ability. In 1875 he was admitted to practice 
in his native state, and for ten years there won 
credit and honors as an energetic, brilliant and 
successful practitioner in the courts. 

In 1885 he removed to Idaho, where, at the 
then brisk railroad town of Eagle Rock, he es- 
tablished himself as an attorney, but was soon 
induced to change his residence and office to 
Blackfoot, the county-seat of the large county 
of Bingham. His personal qualities and his 
knowledge of the law soon brought him ac- 
quaintanceship and friends among the ablest 
professional men of the state and ten years of 
active life at Blackfoot caused him to stand as 
one of the prominent and truly progressive 



men of the entire state. He became one of the 
relied-upon campaigners of the Democratic 
party of the state, and in many successive cam- 
paigns he did highly effective work, not only 
in counsel but as a forceful speaker on the ros- 
trum and on the "stump." Removing to Boise 
from Blackfoot, he there added largely to the 
high reputation he had previously gained, then 
removed to Pocatello, where he has since been 
located, having a valuable practice of a highly 
representative character and acquiring prop- 
erty of intrinsic worth. 

A natural student of law, Judge Reeves 
goes to the bottom of all cases he undertakes, 
building up a solid array of precedents and au- 
thorities difficult for an opponent to overthrow, 
and presenting them to the court in well-linked 
arguments, made entertaining by flashes of wit 
and humor. As a counsellor he discourages 
litigation unless his client has a cause founded 
in equity as well as technicalities of law, un- 
swerving integrity and effective ability being 
marked characteristics of his nature. 

Broad and tolerant in his views of life, he 
has won a large number of warm personal 
friends, while in brotherhood circles he has for 
years stood high in the fraternal society of Odd 
Fellows. His life has been well spent. He has 
met every obligation that has devolved upon 
him, has honestly and faithfully performed 
every trust, whether of a public, private or pro- 
fessional character, and by his fidelity to prin- 
ciple has commanded universal commendation 
and respect. Such men are ever valuable citi- 
zens and the promoters of the advancement 
and weal of the state. 

The marriage relations of the Judge have 
been most felicitous. His wife was in maiden- 
hood a Miss Jennie T. Thomas, also a native of 
Kentucky, and to their home of culture and re- 
finement have come the following children: 
George W., Charles R., Ellen G, Mae, Sim- 
rell and AVilliam F., Jr. 



506 



PROGRESSII'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ERASTUS G. FARMER. 

Although of English parentage, Erastus G. 
Farmer, of Clifton, Oneida county, this state, 
was born on American soil and is in all re- 
spects thoroughly American in feeling, aspira- 
tions, public spirit and devotion to every ele- 
ment of greatness for his country. His life 
began on June 29. 1861, in Douglas county. 
Neb., while his parents, Edward and Elizabeth 
E. (Wright) Farmer, were on their way to 
Utah to join the great body of the Mormon 
church, of which they had become members be- 
fore leaving England, the land of their nativity. 
They had come to the United States in 1855 
and settled in New York City, where the fa- 
ther was employed in a factory until the spring 
of 1 86 1. They then started for Utah and on 
the way fell in with a company of emigrants 
who were also going there and had halted at 
Florence, in Nebraska, near Omaha. There 
occurred the birth of their son Erastus and 
soon after that event they resumed their jour- 
ney and reached Salt Lake City on September 
29th. They at once took up their residence at 
Fort Herriman. Salt Lake county. The next 
spring the father went with a company of set- 
tlers to the Bear Lake country, on the border 
of this state and FJtah. but owing to the state 
of his health at the end of the year was obliged 
to return to his former home. He then located 
at Salt Lake City and after remaining there 
two years and fully recovering his health again 
settled his family at Fort Herriman and went 
to farming. The mother died there on Febru- 
ary 14. 1889. and in 1898 the father again 
moved to Salt Lake, where he is still living. 
Their son Erastus was reared and educated at 
Herriman and worked with his father on the 
farm and attending the stock until the spring 
of 1883. He was then called on a mission to 
North Carolina, where he remained until Oc- 
tober, 1885. On his return he was employed 



in hauling ore from Bingham to Sand)' for a 
year, and early in 1886 he was married and 
then engaged in fanning and raising sheep, in 
company with an uncle, at Herriman, where 
he remained until the spring of 1890. At that 
time he disposed of his interests there but con- 
tinued his residence at that place and worked 
for various stockmen in the neighborhood for 
two years. In the autumn of 1891 he leased a 
band of sheep, and in the spring of 1892 
brought them to Idaho. Here he bought a 
ranch, two miles south of Clifton, and moved 
his family there, making it his home and the 
base of his sheep and farming industries until 
the early part of 1895. when he bought the 
ranch on which he now lives, two miles north 
of Clifton, on which he has since resided, al- 
though still owning the other place. He is 
one of the leaders in the sheep business in that 
section of the state and conducts his business 
with enterprise and a commendable breadtli of 
view. To the church in which he was burn 
and reared he has ever been devoted and serv- 
iceable. No interest in its keeping has appealed 
to him for aid without a prompt and generous 
response, and no duty it has laid upon him has 
ever been slighted or neglected. In the fall of 
1893 ' le was counsellor to Bishop Garner, of 
the Clifton ward, and served him in that ca- 
pacity until his retirement from the bishopric. 
Then, on January 26, 1896, Mr. Farmer was 
himself ordained as the bishop of the ward 
and still holds this important position. In poli- 
tics be is an earnest Republican and has been 
continuously loyal and helpful to his party, at- 
tending its conventions as a delegate and serv- 
ing for a number of years as justice of the 
peace at its behest. At present he is serving 
as chairman of the countv central committee. 

On January 12, 1887, at Logan, Utah, Mr. 
Farmer was married to Miss Mary E. Holt, 
who was born and reared in Utah. Her par- 
ents were Edward D. and Emma (Billings) 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



507 



Holt, natives of England. They became mem- 
bers of the Mormon communion in that coun- 
try, and in 1862 emigrated to America and lo- 
cated in Utah. They made their home at Salt 
Lake City for a number of years, then moved 
to South Jordan, where they remained until 
1898, when they returned to Salt Lake. There 
the father died in November, 1900, and the 
mother now makes her home at South Jordan. 
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Farmer com- 
prises seven living children, Eva Grace, Eras- 
tus L., Elsie M., Ivy P., Golden H., Emma 
E. and Truman E. Their first born child, Nel- 
lie M., died on July 16, 1889, at the age of 
fifteen months. 

NERIAH R. LEWIS. 

Neriah R. Lewis, who is prominent in 
church and public affairs in Bannock county, 
this state, and is one of the leading farmers and 
stockgrowers of southern Idaho, first saw the 
light of this world in Macoupin county, 111., 
where he was born on March 10, 1843. His 
parents were Neriah and Rebecca (Hendricks) 
Lewis, born in Kentucky and early residents 
in Illinois. They became Mormons in the early 
days of the church, and in 1846 moved with 
its great body of members to Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, on the way to a new home to be located 
in the farther West. They, with many other 
members of the church, crossed the Missouri 
into Nebraska and passed the first winter in 
that state. Their provisions were not abun- 
dant and the comforts of life in other respects 
were none too plentiful, but the Indians were 
friendly and hospitable and they got through 
the winter without any serious mishaps. In 
the spring of 1847 they settled on land near 
Weston, Mo., and there they raised a crop, and 
finding the conditions of their situation favor- 
able, remained until the spring of 185 1. They 
then started for Utah by the usual route and 



means, and arrived at Salt Lake City in Octo- 
ber. They took an allotment of land south of 
the city and engaged in farming, making their 
home, however, in the town until 1857; An 
Indian outbreak at that time caused them to 
move south with other settlers, and in the en- 
suing fall, after quiet had been restored, they 
located at Richmond, where they engaged in 
farming until the spring of 1864. They were 
among the first settlers in that region, ten fam- 
ilies having located there in the fall of 1859, 
Mr. Lewis's brother William and his family be- 
ing of the number, which was the beginning of 
civilization for that portion of Utah. At Rich- 
mond and Salt Lake Mr. Lewis received such 
educational training as the circumstances af- 
forded, but the exigencies of the situation for 
almost everybody made these necessarily lim- 
ited in scope and volume, and his equipment 
for the battle of life was mainly drawn from 
his own resources and experience. His mother 
died at Salt Lake in 1854, and soon afterward 
the family moved to Richmond. He worked 
with his father on the farm until his services 
were required to aid in conducting a company 
of emigrants across the plains from the Mis- 
souri River. After his return to Utah he as- 
sisted his father on the farm one season and 
then carried on farming operations in company 
with an uncle until he was of age. In 1864, 
when the freighting business between Corinne, 
Utah, and points in Montana began, he en- 
gaged in the work as a teamster, and some 
little time later he had a freighting outfit of 
his own, and also conducted a farm at Rich- 
mond. In 1867 he quit freighting and settled 
on this farm, which he had owned for a num- 
ber of years, and from that time until 1883 he 
devoted himself almost exclusively to his farm 
and stock business, with employment at inter- 
vals during the winter months on the construc- 
tion work of the Utah Northern and Northern 
Pacific Railroads, which were then building. 



5 o8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



His farm was one of the best and most pro- 
ductive in the vicinity of Richmond and was 
farmed with every attention to detail and with 
the most approved methods available. Dur- 
ing' his residence there he was an earnest 
worker in the church, and was also captain of 
the local police force for eight years. In 1882. 
in the autumn of the year, he was called to the 
bishopric of Oxford in this state, to succeed 
William F. Fisher, who had resigned, and in 
January, 1883. he was ordained to the office. 
He then purchased the land he now occupies 
and in March moved his family to Oxford. 
The land was covered with wild sagebrush 
when he bought it and required about a year 
for its clearing and preparation for tillage. He 
at once built the dwelling in which he lives, 
which, although built in those early times and 
with their limited facilities, is well up-to-date 
even now and might fairly be pointed out as a 
representative home of the town. When he be- 
came bishop the ward was in Cache stake, and 
fifteen months later, when Oneida stake was 
formed, the headquarters were fixed at Ox- 
ford. The ward covers a large extent of terri- 
tory and under his management it has pro- 
gressed rapidly in every line of material and 
spiritual development. Oxford was originally 
in Oneida county, then in Bingham, and is now 
in Bannock ; so, without changing-his residence, 
Mr. Lewis has lived in three counties within a 
period of twenty years, which fact shows some- 
thing of the rapidity of the growth of popula- 
tion and material resources in this part of the 
country. His ranch is a mile and a half east 
of the town and is well cultivated, highly im- 
proved and full of the evidence of progress and 
skillful management. His stock industry is 
large and profitable, and its products are of 
high grade and always in good condition. In 
the public life of the community the bishop 
takes an active and leading part, but he has 
no desire for political office and steadfastly de- 



clines all overtures looking in that direction. 
He was married, on January 20, 1864, at Rich- 
mond, Utah, to Miss Amanda J. Allred, a na- 
tive of Illinois, daughter of Isaac and Julia A. 
(Taylor) Allred, the former a native of Ten- 
nessee and the latter of Kentucky. They came 
to Utah in 185 1 and engaged in farming at 
Centerville, where they were the first settlers, 
and later in Sanpete county, where the father 
died in 1859. The mother died at Richmond 
in May, t8qS. Twelve children have been 
born to the Lewis family, Robert C. William 
A., Rebecca A. and Augusta L. (twins), M. 
Laura (Mrs. Fisher), Isaac N.. George W., 
Julia E. (Mrs. Merrill), Clarence L, Nellie P. 
(Mrs. Beckstead), Lillie V. and Edna V., the 
two last named living at home. 

* EDWARD E. COX. 

There has been no movement of the people 
from the dawn of civilization that has been 
more noble or undertaken by so great a degree 
of principle from the days of the Crusades or 
the Mohammedan hegira than that grand pro- 
cession of Mormon emigrants who. to secure 
the blessings of freedom and the opportunity 
to worship God according to their own light 
and in their own manner, crossed the thou- 
sands of miles of wilderness plains, inhabited 
by wild buffalo and wilder and more danger- 
ous Indians, pressing on steadily to the land 
where nothing but stretches of solid water and 
sagebrush plains awaited their coming. Surely. 
looking at the Utah of today, one must be im- 
pressed with the thought that there was back 
of this movement a power before which all hu- 
man energies shrink into nothingness. Where 
but a brief century ago existed a dreary desert 
is now a land of gardens and fields that return 
an opulent reward for labor bestowed, and cit- 
ies the splendor of which are unsurpassed by 
any in the world's wide acreage. A descend- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



509 



ant of one of those early families of emigrants 
and himself born in the "promised land," at 
Lehi, Utah, in 1852, a son of Edward and 
Hannah (Ashton) Cox, Edward E. Cox is now 
actively engaged in the varied lines of indus- 
trial and business operations in Bingham 
county, Idaho, where he was one of the first 
to be connected with the grand system of irri- 
gation which has wrought such great results 
in the county of his residence and has been a 
potent factor in nearly every department of 
activity that has added to the development and 
improvement of the community. 

Edward Cox is a descendant of several gen- 
erations who have been ardent believers in the 
faith of the Latter Day Saints, his grandfa- 
ther, Daniel Cox, a native of Illinois and a 
farmer in that state until he was set apart by 
Brigham Young as an elder, thereafter passing 
his life for a time in Illinois and Iowa % then 
crossing the plains with his son Edward, and 
becoming one of the pioneer settlers and devel- 
oping factors of Lehi, where he made his home 
until his death, when he was holding the posi- 
tion of presiding elder in his church. His son, 
Edward, was born in Iowa, and the immigra- 
tion with which he crossed the plains was that 
of 1849, their caravans consisting of ox teams. 
He engaged in farming at Lehi, where he is 
still residing at the age of seventy years, hold- 
ing the office of elder in his church. Mrs. Har- 
riet (Ashton) Cox was a native of England, 
who emigrated with her mother, Alica Ashton, 
to Provo, Utah, and was married in Lehi to 
her husband, to whom she was a diligent, faith- 
ful and efficient helpmeet, enjoying- the re- 
gard and esteem of the entire community, be- 
coming the mother of twelve children, and dy- 
ing at the ag'e of fifty-six years, at Lehi, in 
1895, her l° ss being felt as a grievous blow by 
the entire circle of her acquaintances. 

Edward E. Cox, a vigorous and ambitious 
youth, passed his life until the age of twenty- 



five years at Utah, receiving the advantage of 
the excellent schools and becoming practically 
versed in the knowledge of husbandry of this 
section. In 1884 he came to the new lands of 
Bingham county, locating on a homestead of 
160 acres, and engaging in general farming 
and stockraising, applying himself with all the 
energy of his nature to the development of a 
beautiful homestead from the unpropitious ap- 
pearance of its original state. Possessed with 
more than an ordinary share of determination 
and ability, he overcame all obstacles and now 
holds in fee simple one of the finest estates in 
this section of the country, having placed upon 
his ranch the best of improvements and having 
the advantages of the irrigation svstems which 
he has done so much to develop, being one of 
the originators and developing forces of the 
Eagle Rock Irrigation system. He has taken 
especial pains in the raising of horses and hogs 
and can show fine specimens of blooded stock 
in both of these lines. Mr. Cox has the dis- 
tinction of being one of the representative men 
of the county and connected with various lines 
of activity, while in matters of public interest 
of a local nature he is distinctively active and 
is doing valuable work in the educational in- 
terests of his section as chairman of the school 
board in district No. 35, while in religious af- 
filiations he adheres to the church of his fa- 
thers, and is a man of integrity, wise counsel 
and determinate character. In 1885, just be- 
fore making his home in Bingham county, Mr. 
Cox was united in matrimony with Miss Mar- 
garet Hammer, a native of Denmark and a 
daughter of Hans Hammer, who on coming to 
the United States located as a farmer at Lehi, 
Utah, where he is still residing, but has 
changed his occupation, being now engaged in 
a prosperous livery business. A number of 
bright children constitute the household of Mr. 
and Mrs. Cox, and their names in order of 
birth are as follows: George, Julia, Samuel, 



uo 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Hannah. Maud, Earl, Dora and Wallace. Al- 
though Air. Cox started in life with only his 
natural resources for his capital, he has ac- 
quired a competency as the radical result of a 
life of industry, frugality and honorable deal- 
ing - . In the wilderness where he located the 
construction of a home was a work of no small 
undertaking, but by energy and perseverance 
the necessary improvements were made and 
visihle and tangible evidences of his skill and 
judgment are everywhere present on his fine 
estate. A devout and consistent member of 
his church and a liberal supporter of church in- 
terests, he is prominently identified with the 
march of civilization in this section and is truly 
pronounced one of the progressive and success- 
ful agriculturists of the county. 

WILLIAM F. FISHER. 

Peacefully although vigorously conducting 
his large mercantile business, which is one of 
the leading enterprises of the kind in southern 
Idaho, practicing his profession as a lawyer 
without ostentation or conspicuous display, al- 
though it includes husiness in two states, earn- 
estly interested in his stock industry which 
produces some of the finest blooded horses in 
his section of the country, actively supporting 
the principles of the Democratic party, to 
which he yields a loyal and constant allegiance, 
and working zealously and efficiently in the 
service of his chosen church, and in all these 
lines of activity devoted to the general welfare 
of the community in which he lives, William 
F. Fisher, of Oxford. Idaho, gives no sign to 
the passing stranger or the casual observer, in 
his demeanor, of the adventurous life he has 
lived or the career of thrilling interest he has 
had in this Western country. His life, which 
has been largely passed in the midst of alarms, 
hegan on November 16, 1839, at Woolwich, 
County Kent. England. His parents were 



Thomas F. and Jane (Christon) Fisher, of that 
country, and. with him, were converted to 
Mormonism in their native land in 184S. In 
April, 1854, they emigrated to America, mak- 
ing the trip across the Atlantic in a sailing- 
vessel to New Orleans, and coming from there 
up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to 
Kansas City by steamboat. There the father 
bought oxen and cattle and fitted up a wagon 
for the long trip across the plains to Utah. 
They went first to Weston, Mo., and from 
there proceeded on their way, arriving at Salt 
Lake City on November 28, 1854, their train 
being the last to make the journey that year. 
They located at Bountiful. Davis county, where 
the father farmed and worked at his trade as 
a carpenter, remaining there until his death. 
He was prominent in public affairs and held 
many places of trust and importance in the 
community and county, and was of great value 
in settling and developing the country. His 
son William was fifteen years of age when the 
family reached Utah and had been moderately 
well educated in his native land. He was 
strong" and willing, animated by high hopes and 
filled with loft}- aspirations, and was thus pre- 
pared to take up the duties of life at an early 
age. He remained at Bountiful with his par- 
ents, working on the farm, until the spring of 
1859, when he entered the employ of the Chor- 
pening- Mail Co., for whom he packed mail oh 
mules with pack-saddles for a year. At that 
time the United States mails were carried 
through this country only once a month, and 
during the period of service with this company 
he kept a mail station for about six months at 
Gravelly Ford on the Humboldt River, and 
while there had the pleasure of cooking a meal 
for Horace Greelev, editor of the New York 
Tribune, who was then making a trip through 
the country. From April to July. 1860, he 
rode the pony express between Ruby Valley 
and Butte Station, in Nevada. The Indian 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5" 



outbreak of that summer extended all along 
the route. It began with the killing of two 
men at Dry Creek, Nev., and was kept up with 
the massacre of man}' settlers and expressmen, 
whom the savages scalped, mutilated and 
burned at the stake. Mr. Fisher was the ex- 
pressman who brought the news of the out- 
break from Roberts Creek to Shell Creek, and 
soon afterward the settlers and others who were 
at the mercy of the infuriated Indians were 
pleased to see two companies of United States 
cavalry in their midst, who, after a number of 
furious engagements, succeeded in subduing 
the braves. In July, i860, Mr. Fisher covered 
the distance between Ruby Valley and Salt 
Lake City, 300 miles, in thirty-five hours, with 
only sixteen changes of horses, the Indians hav- 
ing destroyed the stations and killed the keep- 
ers and horses at many places on the route. 
In November of the same year he carried the 
returns of the presidential election from Salt 
Lake City to Faust's Station, a distance of sev- 
enty-five miles, in four hours and twenty 
minutes. The ensuing' winter of 1860-61 was 
noted for the length, frequency and severity of 
its storms. One night in January of that win- 
ter he was out in a storm all night and part of 
the next day, being exposed to the fury of the 
elements eighteen hours, having- lost his way 
on the route from Camp Floyd to Salt Lake 
City. In the spring of 1862 he quit the ex- 
press and moved to West Bountiful, where he 
remained until the fall of 1864, when he moved 
to Richmond, in the Cache Valley. There he 
bought land and was occupied in farming for 
some time, then took a contract on the Central 
Pacific Railroad in construction work. He aft- 
erward had similar contracts with the Utah 
Central, the Bingham Central, the Wasatch & 
Jordan Valley, the Utah Northern, and several 
other roads, working on them until 1871, when 
he went on a church mission to the Middle 
states. In the spring of 1872 he returned to 



Richmond and in 1874 began a mercantile busi- 
ness there. In the spring of 1876 he was called 
to move his family and effects to Oxford, then 
in Oneida county, this state, and in August, 
1877, was ordained bishop of that place. In 
this position he served with great credit to 
himself and benefit to the church until 1882, 
when he resigned. He did not, however, move 
his family to this region until 1878, after he 
had bought land and built a home for them 
Within that year he opened a general store at 
Oxford and this enterprise he is still conduct- 
ing with a steadily expanding trade. His resi- 
dence is one of the best in the town, and the 
store is on the same lot which he bought in 
1876. From his advent into the county he has 
been active and influential in public affairs. 
He was elected on the Democratic ticket to the 
office of county assessor in 1878, and was re- 
elected in 1880 and again in 1882. All of what 
is how Bannock county was then in Oneida, 
and the territory was larg'e, the duties of his 
office being correspondingly voluminous and 
difficult. In 1879 he bought a farm one mile 
south of Oxford and has given a due share 
of his attention to farming and raising stock 
since then. It was in that year also that he 
was admitted to practice at the Idaho bar, and 
in 1882 he was admitted in Utah. His pro- 
fession is, like all his other attainments, the 
result of his own efforts and capacity. He is 
essentially a self-made man in every particu- 
lar, seeing clearly from the beginning what he 
wished to do and be, and working assiduously 
to the end in view. Almost from his first en- 
try into the state he has filled the office of no- 
tary public, discharging the duties of the of- 
fice, as he does everything else, with a consci- 
entious regard for the general welfare and 
without* any special consideration for personal 
interests. Since 1898 he has been district hor- 
ticultural inspector of Oneida, Bannock and 
Bear Lake counties, and in this position also 



5!2 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



has rendered efficient and valuable service to 
the people. One of his special aspirations in 
connection with his farming and stock business 
has been to raise the standard of horses in the 
portion of the state to which he belongs, and 
to this work he has diligently addressed him- 
self. He has bred and handled the purest 
strains of high grades, and has been influential 
in inducing others to do the same, and thus 
the county and surrounding country is indebted 
to him for a valuable stimulus in the direction 
of a permanent improvement in the character 
of its live stock. From his youth his church 
has had the benefit of his most ardent devotion 
and most faithful and efficient service. No 
means of grace to the promotion of its interests 
has been overlooked by him, and no element 
of its beneficent activity has appealed to him 
in vain for support. On January i, 1861, he 
was married, at Salt Lake City, to Miss Mil- 
lennium Andrus, who was born at Nauvoo, 
111., the daughter of Milo and Abigail J. (Da- 
ley) Andrus, natives of New York. Her par- 
ents came to Utah in 1848 and made their 
home at Salt Lake. The father was promi- 
nent in missionary work for the church. He 
died at Oxford, this state, on June 19, 1893, 
and the mother on October 27, 1894. Mr. 
and Mrs. Fisher have had eleven children, 
namely : William E., L. May (Mrs. Carlson), 
Thomas M. (deceased), John E. (deceased), 
Frederick J. (deceased), George H, Roy C. 
(deceased), Minnie J. (Mrs. Ellsworth). Stella 
J. (Mrs. Brossard), Ray Homer and Victor R. 
The two last named make their home with 
their parents. The others are established in life 
and prosperous in their respective occupations. 

WILLIAM BODILY. 

The colonizing spirit of Great Britain, 
which has laid all quarters of the globe under 
tribute to her commerce and made her the mis- 



tress of the sea, carrying her morning drum- 
beat in equal pace with the mounting sunbeams 
in their beneficent march around the world has 
had its counterpart in the history of our own 
country, although in reverse order, and has 
helped to make our land great and prosperous 
at home as hers is abroad. While she has been 
sending people out in every direction for con- 
quest in foreign climes, we have been liberal in 
naturalization and have welcomed them in 
from all lands to our own bountiful harvest of 
opportunity and material wealth. William 
Bodily, of Fairview, and his parents and broth- 
ers have been instruments in both lines of ac- 
tivitv, and have been the promoters and benefi- 
ciaries of both forms of enterprise. Mr. Bod- 
ily was born on May 14. 1842, in Northamp- 
tonshire, England, the son of Robert and Jane 
(Pittam) Bodily, and when he was three years 
old the parents moved with their family to 
Cape Town in South Africa, where the mother 
country was just then pushing the development 
of her colony. The father was a stone-mason 
and his first work in his new home was to as- 
sist in completing the fortifications at the Cape 
of Good Hope, which occupied him two years. 
From there he moved to Port Elizabeth, where 
he was employed at his trade for a period of 
five years. He then bought property at Bush- 
man's River, about half way between Port 
Elizabeth and Grahamstown, the section hav- 
ing been originally a grant of 300 acres by 
the government for a place of entertainment 
called in that country an ' inn. Mr. Bodily 
purchased the grounds and buildings from their 
former owner and conducted the inn success- 
fully for a number of years, carrying on at 
the same time a flourishing business as a 
wheelwright and blacksmith. Soon after their 
settlement at this place the parents were con- 
verted to Mormonism, and in i860 they came 
to America, landing at Boston in the spring 
of the year, and at once made their way over 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



513 



over the plains to Utah, the ox-team train to 
which they were attached being commanded 
by Capt. William Budge, now an esteemed res- 
ident of Paris, this state. In the spring of 
1861 they settled at Kaysville, Utah, where 
they secured land and engaged in farming, the 
father working at his trade also. He died at 
Kaysville on April 15, 1892, and his widow 
still makes her home there. Their son Wil- 
liam was educated in Cape Colony and was 
eighteen years old when the family came to 
the United States. Here he assisted his father 
on the farm until 1862, when he was sent by 
the church to Omaha to conduct a party of 
emigrants to Utah. On his return he remained 
at home a few months, and in 1864 was mar- 
ried and moved to Eden, in the Ogden Valley, 
where he bought a farm and tilled it until 
1867. The next three years were passed at 
Kaysville, and in 1871 he moved to Hyde Park, 
in the Cache Valley, remaining there until 
1872, when he came to live in the upper part 
of the valley. He located on the ranch which 
he now occupies in Fairview precinct, eight 
miles south of Preston, and which has ever 
since been his home. There was but one other 
settler in this region at the time of his com- 
ing, and, although others soon followed, the 
trials and privations of the early years were 
extreme and almost insurmountable. In time, 
however, by unity and persistency of effort, the 
small band of hardy pioneers made an impress 
on the wild waste and it began to return with 
interest whatever they committed to its care. 
They were indefatigable in constructing roads, 
bridges and irrigating canals, and doing all 
that was possible to push the development of 
the country, even though their implements of 
labor were crude and insufficient and the con- 
veniences of life were for the most part un- 
attainable. Mr. Bodily had learned the trade 
of a carpenter and during the early years of 
his residence in this neighborhood he found an 



urgent and continued demand for his mechan- 
ical accomplishments in building dwellings and 
other structures for the use of the people. Of 
late years he has devoted his time and energies 
almost wholly to his farm and his dairy busi- 
ness. From 1877 to 1883 he was employed in 
the construction of the temple at Logan. This 
work, although not so far from his home, nec- 
essarily interfered in a considerable degree 
with the development and improvement of the 
latter. Still he prosecuted this as vigorously 
as the circumstances would allow, and he has 
now one of the most advanced and highly cul- 
tivated places in the valley. His devotion to 
the church has always been ardent and para- 
mount. He has been clerk of the ward from 
its organization and superintendent of the Sun- 
day school for a number of years. In politics 
he is firmly attached to the Republican party. 
On October 29, 1864, at Salt Lake City, 
Mr. Bodily married with Miss Sarah Talbot, 
a South African by nativity, daughter of Henry 
and Ruth (Sweeten) Talbot, natives of Eng- 
land, but for a number of years residents of 
Cape Colony, emigrating from that country to 
Utah in 1861. Six children blessed their union, 
William E., Jane E., Ruth E. (Mrs. Layton). 
Robert H., Jane R. and Sarah L. (deceased) 
Their mother died on October 8, 1873, and 
on January 4, 1875, also at Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Bodily married his second wife, Miss De- 
lilah McFerson, a native of Utah, daughter of 
Dimon and Mary A. (Neas) McFerson, the 
father a native of New Hampshire and the 
mother of Pennsylvania. They came to Utah 
in 185 1 and settled at Kaysville, where the 
mother still lives and where the father died on 
February 14. 1875. This marriage resulted in 
eight children, seven of whom are living, Mary 
A. (Mrs. Stewart), Frank E, Charles D., Lydia 
E., Leah B., D. Dimon and Herbert N. An- 
other daughter, Marian, died on February 22, 
1880, at the age of ten months. 



5 ! 4 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ROSEL J. HYDE. 

A pioneer in two states of the Northwest, 
and displaying in each the qualities of push, 
enterprise and public spirit, Rosel J. Hyde, of 
Fairview. has # been a potent and serviceable 
factor in building up the communities in which 
he has lived and spreading abroad for the bene- 
fit of his fellows the stores of wealth and 
worldly comfort long hidden from the use of 
man and waiting only for the voice of real sov- 
ereignty to bring them forward to their proper 
service. Mr. Hyde was born on May 25, 1845, 
in Hancock county, 111., the son of Rosel and 
Mary A. (Cowles) Hyde, natives of New York, 
where they were prosperously engaged in farm- 
ing. Embracing the Mormon faith in the in- 
fancy of the church, they determined early in 
the forties to join the great body of its people 
in their "City of Beauty." Nauvoo, 111., and 
journeyed thither with their family. They re- 
mained at Nauvoo until 1848. when they took 
up their march with the last company for the 
new Zion that was to be built on the Pacific 
slope. They wintered at Council Bluffs and 
in the spring of 1849 proceeded on their way 
to Salt Lake City. Here they passed the first 
four years of their residence in this Western 
world, the father being occupied in farming 
near the city. Tn 1853 they moved to Kays- 
ville, where they settled on an allotment of 
land and again engaged in farming. There 
the mother died, on December 1, 1901. and the 
father, in August. 1903, eighty-six years of 
age, and a venerated patriarch in the church 
in whose progress and welfare he had ever 
taken the greatest interest, serving as counsellor 
to the bishop at Kaysville for twenty years. 
The son, Rosel J. Hyde, was eight years old 
when the family moved to Kaysville, and he 
there reached years of maturity and received a 
common-school education. He remained at 
home working on the farm with his father un- 



til his marriage, in 1865. when he began farm- 
ing for himself near Kaysville, remaining there 
until October, 187 1. At that time he disposed 
of his interests in Utah and, coming to the 
northern part of the Cache Valley, he home- 
steaded on the ranch which he now occupies in 
Fairview precinct, five miles west of Franklin. 
Oneida county, Idaho. There were only four 
or five settlers in this neighborhood when he 
came hither and the country was almost wholly 
in a state of nature. They laid hold of the task 
of redeeming and fructifying it with vigor and 
stuck to it with persistent diligence, clearing 
the ground, building roads and bridges, open- 
ing canals for irrigation, and in general laying 
the foundations broad and deep for the present 
state of advancement and high cultivation for 
which the region is distinguished. In these 
works of improvement Mr. Hyde bore an ac- 
tive and serviceable part, and at the same time 
improved his own land and made it attractive 
with all the appurtenances of civilized rural 
life. He from the first also gave great atten- 
tion to the affairs of his church, taking a par- 
ticularly active part in teaching and other ward 
work. He is now a member of the high priest- 
hood in this most energetic and remarkable or- 
ganization. 

On October 10. 1865. at Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Hyde was joined in marriage with Miss 
Jane Driggs, a native of Andrew county. Mo., 
daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth A. (Taylor) 
Driggs, the father born in Allegany count\ . 
N. Y., and the mother in Warren county. Ky. 
They became Mormons in the early days of the 
history of the church, and soon after joined the 
great body of its people on the banks of the 
Mississippi, and the father became one of the 
guards of Joseph Smith just prior to his cap- 
ture and assassination at Carthage, 111. Tliey 
came to Utah in 1850 and settled at Kaysville. 
where the father died in 1853 and the mother 
is still living 1 . The Hvde household has been 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



515 



blessed with twelve children, six of whom are 
living, namely: Rosel J., Jr., Martha A., Lou- 
isa J., Henry, Uriah H. and Joseph F. Those 
deceased are Mary E., Amasa H., Samuel, 
Simpson M., William and Hyrum W. 

• FURMAN CAFFERTY. 

Furman Cafferty, of Fairview, one of the 
most substantial and progressive ranchmen of 
Oneida county. Idaho, was born on September 
22, 185 1, at Union, Broome county, N. Y., 
where his parents, George and Emily (Decker) 
Cafferty, also were native, and where they 
passed their lives. The ancestors on both sides 
of the house came to America in Colonial times. 
and their descendants have been influential in 
the history of the country wherever they have 
lived. Mr. Cafferty's father was a capitalist 
and had large interests in the oil fields of Penn- 
sylvania. He was one of the leading men of 
his section and remained in Broome county, 
N. Y., until his death. The mother died in 
i860. Their son Furman reached years of 
maturity and received his education in his na- 
tive town. He was but a young boy when the 
Civil war was fought, but he vividly recollects 
the excitements of the period, which were 
deeply impressed on his young mind. After 
leaving school he worked at various occupa- 
tions, principally railroading and farming, un- 
til the spring of 1872. He then came west to 
Chicago, and after a short period of employ- 
ment in that city located near Aurora, 111., 
where he worked until fall, then started for 
Corinne, Utah. On the way he was taken ill at 
Omaha and went to Council Bluffs, where he 
remained until he recovered his health, when 
he proceeded to Corinne, arriving there in the 
fall of the year. This was then the shipping 
point for different places in Montana by freight 
teams, and was therefore a place of some im- 
portance. He found employment in a smelter 



for some time, then engaged in -freighting be- 
tween Corinne and Helena, Mont., his route 
lying through the Malad Valley. At the first 
of the following year he returned to Corinne, 
and thereafter for a time bought mules around 
Clifton for the nearby markets, and in the 
spring entered the service of the Central Pa- 
cific Railroad as a brakeman, but soon after this 
engagement began he was injured so seriously 
in an accident -that he was obliged to leave the 
work and return to his New York home for 
treatment. He was under the care of the doc- 
tors for nearly a year, and in 1878 returned to 
the West. In the spring of 1879 he came to 
the northern Cache Valley and settled on the 
ranch which is now his home, and which is lo- 
cated in the center of Fairview precinct, a name 
bestowed on the precinct by Mr. Cafferty's 
brother George,, who was engaged in freight- 
ing through this country in 1869, and in 1877 
took up land near his. George died in 1884. 
Mr. Cafferty has remained on his homestead 
conducting progressive farming and dairying 
industries since he first located it, and gradu- 
ally improving the place and adding to its fer- 
tility and value. It is three miles and a half 
west of Franklin, and is one of the most desir- 
able places in this part of the county. He has 
built on it a good stone dwelling and other nec- 
essary structures and has brought it to a high 
state of cultivation. Mr. Cafferty is one of 
the progressive, enterprising and far-seeing 
men of this community, and is highly esteemed 
as such. He is a Democrat in politics and 
takes a leading part in political affairs. He 
was sent as a delegate to the state conventions 
of 1898 and 1900. In addition to his ranch, 
he has an interest in mining property of value 
at Mackay, Idaho. 

On July 1, 1877, Mr. Cafferty was mar- 
ried to Miss Anna D. Crum, a native of 
Broome county, N. Y., where the marriage oc- 
curred. Her parents were Jonathan and Julia 



5i6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



A. (Ames) Crum. natives of New York, where 
the father was a prosperous farmer until his 
death and where the mother still lives on the 
old homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Cafferty have 
four children, Charles F.. Julia M., Furman J. 
and Laura E. 

WILLIAM W. WOODLAND. 

Accounts of pioneer life are ajways full of 
interest to the people. This existence is chosen 
for the purpose of acquiring a home more 
cheaply than it could be secured in the con- 
gested regions of advanced civilization for the 
enjoyment of the free, wild life of a new coun- 
try "fresh from the hands of God." to secure 
freedom from surroundings and restraints 
more or less unpleasant, or. as is the case of the 
new settlements of the Mormon church in the 
West, to obtain freedom to worship God un- 
molested and according to the dictates of their 
own conscience, the same motive that actuated 
the passengers of the Mayflower on that mem- 
orable westward voyage which terminated at 
Plymouth Rock in 1620. Prominent as a pio- 
neer of pioneers in the eastern portion of Bing- 
ham count}-. Idaho, where he has ever taken a 
most active and a leading part in the reduction 
of the sagebrush wilderness and in the conver- 
sion of the desert spaces into productive farms 
through his aid in assisting settlers to here 
make their homes. William W. Woodland, the 
first settler north of Bear River in his section 
of the state, well deserves the preserving rec- 
ord of the historian. 

Mr. Woodland's ancestry traces back 
through his grandparents. John and Rhoda 
(Brown) W r oodland, during many years of 
American life to early English emigrants, his 
forefathers coming to Virginia, antecedent to 
the Revolutionary war, in which several of the 
name rendered efficacious and valiant service, 
his paternal grandfather, a large planter and 



slave owner, serving as a colonel under Gen- 
eral Washington during that struggle. W. W. 
Woodland, however, was born in Edwards 
county. 111., on January 2, 1832, being the son 
of John and Celia (Steepleford) Woodland, the 
father having his birth at Norfolk, Va., on 
March 27. 1776, while the mother came into 
being in Barren county. Ky., on May 7. tSoi. 
They became early pioneers of Edwards 
county, wrought well in the upbuilding of that 
section df Illinois and developed a fine farm 
from the virgin prairie land. Becoming be- 
lievers in the doctrines of the Latter Day 
Saints, in consequence thereof receiving the 
bitter persecutions extended at that time to the 
people of their belief, in 1850 they turned from 
the place and associations rendered so dear to 
them by years of residence and traveled the 
thousands of miles of outstretching plains to se- 
cure on the sparsely settled sagebrush lands of 
Utah the religious privileges denied them in 
the land which they had chosen as their per- 
manent home. In Utah the parents settled at 
Willard and were valuable members of the 
community until their death, the father passing 
away on November 8. 1872. and the mother 
on October 12. 1883. 

At the early age of sixteen years did the 
immediate subject of this review commence 
life for himself, for a number of years dili- 
gently laboring at various employments in 
Utah, and in 1852 going to California, where 
he was for years a drover. He became a mem- 
ber of a company of Mormon minute-men. or- 
ganized to repel the expected attack of Indians 
in 1849. and of this historic company he con- 
tinued to be a member for twenty years. Mr. 
Woodland returned to Utah in iS^C) and. in 
considering the most feasible location to estab- 
lish a home, he became acquainted with south- 
ern Idaho, concluded to become one of its peo- 
ple, and in 1864 secured from the government 
the nucleus of his present highly improved and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



517 



productive ranch of 255 acres, and from that 
time to the present no citizen in a wide range 
of country has been more generally known or 
done more to develop the resources and build 
up the settlement of his county. He was a pio- 
neer settler on the west side of Bear River and 
experienced at the early day his full share of 
the vicissitudes of extreme frontier life. In all 
public matters of a local nature he has taken his 
full share of the labors, hardships, trials, disap- 
pointments and successes, ever being a man to 
whom others have looked for counsel, advice 
and assistance, and one to whom the present 
population is largely indebted for the wealth 
and prosperity everywhere in evidence in this 
highly favored region. 

While working for the public good in nu- 
merous ways, he has not been neglectful of his 
own interests and fortune has come to him 
with open hands. His large home farm com- 
prises 255 acres of well-improved and well-irri- 
gated land, which is also the center of extensive 
live-stock operations, large droves of valuable 
Shorthorn cattle bearing his brand on the sur- 
rounding ranges. Mr. Woodland, James 
Whitaker and Henry AVoodland built the first 
sawmill in this county in 1865. The subject 
was a leading factor in the establishment of 
the Malad Co-operative Store and a large 
stockholder therein, was a pioneer in organiz- 
ing and irt building- the irrigation canal of the 
Portneuf Co., and is the owner of valuable 
realty at Oneida. From the first he has been 
called to various official stations, discharging 
their responsible duties with conceded ability, 
while in the Mormon church he has been a 
faithful holder of many official places, holding 
that of counsellor to the bishop for many 
years. 

This sterling pioneer has for many years 
had the efficient cooperation of his very ca- 
pable wife, with whom he was united in mar- 
riage on July 12, 1862, her maiden name being 



Laura Peters, a daughter of David and Laura 
(Jones) Peters, who emigrated from their na- 
tive land of Wales to America in 1849 an ^ be- 
coming residents of Brigham City, Utah, in 
1852, there residing - until their deaths, that of 
the father occurring in June, 1898, and that of 
the mother in December, 1899. Their Utah 
life was passed in conducting farming opera- 
■tions, although in Wales the father was the 
owner and manager of a large woolen factor}'. 
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Woodland have been 
born fourteen children: A¥illiam N., born 
November 22, 1863; John D., born February 
24. 1S65, died September 17, 1866; Laura L., 
born June 10, 1867 ; Celia J., born April 4, 
1869, died October 21, 1895; Dicy E., born 
November 25, 1870; Sarah E., born October 
19, 1872, died October 29, 1873; Lillian D., 
born April 14, 1874; P. Myrtle, bom Decem- 
ber 29, 1875; Thomas M., born January 11. 
1878; Mary R., born February 20, 1880; Dan- 
iel P., born February 17, 1882; Charlotte R.. 
born June 29, 1884; Pearl T., born September 
21. 1886; Hazel, born September 3, 1889, died 
December 15, 1894. 

RICHARD RAWLINGS. 

- For thirt)f-five years a resident of the 
Northwest, and having contributed nearly 
thirty years of the time in useful and product- 
ive labor to the development of this section 
of our country, Richard Rawlings, of Fair- 
view, Oneida county, this state, has well 
earned the rest from active pursuits he is now 
peacefully enjo)dng\ and is justly entitled to 
pass the evening of life, which he has reached 
through toil and tempest, in the pleasing retro- 
spect of the scenes through which he has come 
to his present state of worldly comfort and gen- 
eral public esteem. He was born in Wiltshire, 
England, on January 8, 1826, the son of Rich- 
ard and Sarah (Kingston) Rawlings, who 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



lived, labored and died in England, as their 
ancestors did for many generations before 
them. The father was a wood merchant and 
with fidelity and diligence performed all the 
duties allotted to him in every relation of life, 
winning the regard of his fellows and seeking 
no reward except the proper guerdon for his 
toil and the approval of his own conscience. 
The mother was in every way equal to him in 
worth and fidelity, and enjoyed, as he did, the 
good will and esteem of all who knew her. 
Their son Richard was reared and educated in 
his native land and as he approached years of 
maturity became a farmer and stockgrower. 
He followed these occupations until 1868 in 
the neighborhood of his paternal home, and in 
that year determined to seek the association of 
the people with whom he had affiliated in re- 
ligious faith some fourteen years before and 
make his home near the central altars of the 
Mormon church. He accordingly set sail for 
the United States on the Constitution, the last 
of the sailing ships to go out of commission as 
a passenger boat. When he reached Utah he 
sent his family to Salt Lake City and himself 
went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad, 
in whose employ he remained until the spring 
of 1869. He then entered the service of Brig- 
ham Young, attending his cattle on the ranches, 
and bringing them into Cache Valley in the 
vicinity of Logan. He continued to work for 
the great Mormon leader three years, at the 
end of which he was chosen to take charge of 
the church herds, and held this employment 
four years, fn July. 1876, he moved into the 
locality in which he now lives and settled on 
the ranch which has since been his home in 
Fairview precinct, three and one-half miles 
south of Preston. Here he was until recently 
continuously occupied in farming and raising 
stock, and with such success and credit that he 
rose to a position of leadership among the cat- 
tlemen of this section. In 1895 1ie turned the 



management of his stock interests and farm- 
ing operations over to his sons and has since 
that time lived retired from active business. 
The young men owned land adjoining his and. 
with the addition of his ranch, which is one 
of the largest and best in this part of the 
county, they have enough to engage all their 
faculties and satisfy the energies and ambition 
by which they have become known as among 
the most successful and progressive men in the 
business in southern Idaho. In church work 
the father has always been active and has 
served in the high priesthood since 1892. In 
November, 1845, in Wiltshire. England, he was 
married to Miss Prudence M. Rawlings, bear- 
ing the same name as his own but no kin to 
him. They have had nine children, Ann, Ma- 
tilda (deceased), Mary A., Honor. Sarah. 
James, Ethan. Ethar and ^ 7 alter. His wife 
died on December 31. 1868. 

ROBERT BARNES. 

Back for man)- generations and centuries 
in England can be traced the lineage of the 
prosperous farmer of Bingham county. Idaho, 
whose name heads this review and who is one 
of the progressive men of this rapidly advanc- 
ing section of the Union, whose prosperity and 
development move hand in hand to the per- 
fecting of one of the finest types of an Ameri- 
can community people by the finest characters 
of an American life. His grandfather, John 
Barnes, passed the unusually long life of 100 
years (lacking only a small number of days') 
in the peaceful and uneventful life of an Eng- 
lish farmer, being held high in the esteem of 
the community for his sterling worth and deep 
piety, in addition to the important qualities of 
industry and determination of purpose. Among 
his children was James F. Barnes, who thor- 
oughly prepared himself by steady and tech- 
nical training for a line of mechanical labor for 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5*9 



which he was well adapted, and in which he 
continued in his native land until he became a 
convert to the doctrines of the Mormon 
church, as taught by its faithful missionaries. 
In 1882 he crossed the ocean westward with 
a Mormon company and immediately pro- 
ceeded to Utah, where he located as a farmer 
at South Cottonwood, Salt Lake county, and 
being prospered in his undertakings, he there 
remained in diligent industry until 1885, when, 
learning of the widespread opportunities for 
acquiring a home of unequalled advantages in 
the lands of Bingham county, Idaho, he trav- 
eled hither, and, findng his anticipations more 
than realized, he located a homestead claim 
in an advantageous locality, sixteen miles 
northeast of Idaho Falls, in the vicinity of the 
present postoffice of Prospect. Here he main- 
tained his home until his death, his improve- 
ments steadily gaining in number and in worth, 
until his property was greatly enhanced in 
value and here Mr. Barnes was residing when 
the fell summons of death called him from 
earth, in 1859, at the age of sixty-two years, 
while standing high in the estimation of the 
community and faithfully discharging his du- 
ties as a high priest in the Mormon church. 
His wife, whose maiden name was Prudence 
Elmon, accompanied him from England when 
they were married, was a true helpmeet to him 
until her death in 1894, and bore him seven 
children, sons and daughters. One of 'these 
children was Robert Barnes, who was born on 
December 24, 1857, in England, where he re- 
ceived the educational advantages of the na- 
tional schools and attained his twentieth year 
before he accompanied his parents on the jour- 
ney of thousands of miles to the land of prom- 
ise on the plains of Utah. His first location in 
the land of his adoption was in Salt Lake City, 
and here he remained in useful employment un- 
til he came with his father to Idaho, and here 
he was associated with him in business opera- 



tions up to the time of the latter' s death, when 
the full charge of the estate and its contingent 
industries devolved upon him. Here he is con- 
ducting' in a methodical and profitable manner 
the raising of crops that thrive in this region, 
while in religious circles of the Mormon 
church he capably holds the position of teacher. 
In a wide range of acquaintances and business 
associates. Mr. Barnes is considered one of the 
representative men of his county and a most 
valuable citizen. In public matters he is deeply 
interested, but has not aspired to political sta- 
tion. 

On July 25. 1892, Mr. Barnes led to the 
marriage altar Miss Lucy Stokes, born July 
16, 1861, a native of England and a daughter 
of James and Sarah Stokes, lifelong residents 
of England, where her father was a skilled 
engineer. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have had four 
children, Lucy S., born and died on June 1. 
1893; Mary Jane, born on January 15, 1895; 
James Robert, born on March 4, 1896, and 
Franklin O., born Setember 21. 1897. 

CHARLES R. HIGHAM. 

Charles R. Higham has gained prestige as. 
one of the prosperous fanners and stockmen 
of Bingham county, Idaho, and his success is 
the more gratifying when the fact is taken into 
consideration that it has been done entirely 
through his own efforts, while his duty in all 
the relations of life has been such as to gain 
to him the universal confidence and esteem of 
his fellow citizens. He is a man of sturdy 
character and industrious habits and is thus 
entitled to mention in this work as one of the 
progressive men of the state of Idaho. 

Mr. Higham was born at Ogden, Utah, on 
December 10, 1856, being a son of Charles 
and Jane Higham. natives of England, where 
they attained maturity, were married and made 
their home until their emigration from their 



-,2G 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



native land. They were devout and sincere 
adherents of the Mormon faith and were de- 
sirous of connecting" themselves with the rap- 
idly growing colony of their faith, that had 
been located on the sagebrush plains of Utah, 
and were among the earliest to join the num- 
bers that were pressing- on to that destination. 
Crossing the plains in 1847, they located in Salt 
Lake Valley for a period of years as industri- 
ous tillers of the soil, and being largely occu- 
pied with the development of the section of 
their residence. In 1863 the family home was 
made at Ogden, but two years later they re- 
moved to Soda Springs, Idaho, thereafter be- 
ing transferred to Blackfoot and to Fort Hall, 
while in 1867 they made their permanent resi- 
dence on Blackfoot River, eight miles north of 
Blackfoot villag'e. They there resided for a 
period of ten years, thence in 1877 coming to 
Birch Creek, where Mr. Higham took up a 
homestead. In 1878 his parents returned to 
England for a visit and a year later returned 
to Utah, and in 1888 sold their possessions on 
Birch Creek and removed to Ogden,' still later 
selling their property there and returning to 
England, whence again they took their west- 
ward way, making their ultimate destination 111 
Bingham county, Idaho, where they passed the 
evening of their lives, died and were buried at 
Blackfoot. Of their three children, two are liv- 
ing, Charles R. and J. W. 

Charles R. Higham paid strict attention in 
early years to the acquisition of the necessarv 
knowledge to properly conduct the agriculture 
of the West, taking from early childhood an ac- 
tive interest in public affairs and giving close 
and intelligent attention to the welfare and de- 
velopment of the community. His manhood 
was attained in the new country of Idaho, en- 
tirely free from the contaminating influence so 
closely connected with the great centers of civ- 
ilization, and he has ever maintained a life that 
has compared with the sterling character so 



many years manifested by his worthy parents. 
In 1874, at the age of twenty-four years, Mr. 
Higham engaged in stockraising'. continuing 
thus employed until in 1879. when he accom- 
panied his brother to Bingham county, in Co- 
nant Valley, there taking a squatter's right, 
this section of the country being yet unsur- 
veyed and lying in all its primitive wilderness. 
After the government survey of land. Mr. 
Higham took charge of his homestead right, 
and is now the proprietor of 320 acres, which 
is the center of his stockraising operations, he 
running large herds of cattle and being pros- 
pered in his undertakings and holding the repu- 
tation of being one of the responsible and well- 
to-do citizens of the county. 

On July 14, 1886, at Idaho Falls, occurred 
the marriage of Mr. Higham to Mary F. 
White, a native of Utah and a daughter of 
William and Matty AA'hite. natives of Arkan- 
sas. Their children are Charles W. and Mary 
Medlin. Social in his nature and possessing 
an interest in everything that pertains to. the 
advancement of his count}'. Mr. Higham is 
in every way a representative citizen, and a 
stalwart believer and supporter of the doctrines 
of the Republican political party, to which he 
gives allegiance. Fraternallv he belongs to 
Bingham Lodge. No. 14, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, at Idaho Falls, and also to the 
order of Woodmen of the World. The useful- 
ness of Mr. Higham as a citizen has been 
largely in evidence, for the example and the 
wisdom of his counsels have stimulated others 
to beneficial activity and aided in the raising 
of the standard of the community and the im- 
proved values of property in his neighborhood. 

JOHN B. ROCANTINE. 

Having his birth in the far-distant land of 
sunny Italy, where he was born in 1853. a son 
of Toachimo and Man' Rogantine. a descend- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



S2i 



ant from a family prominently connected for 
an unknown period with the activities and ag- 
ricultural interests of his native land, John B. 
Rogantine is now a prosperous farmer and 
stockgrower in Bingham county, Idaho, in 
which state he has been a resident since 1883, 
his highly improved and valuable estate being 
located eight miles northeast of Idaho Falls. 
His father, who was a son of Joachim Rogan- 
tine, was, like him, a lifelong farmer in the 
land of Italy, and there his death occurred at 
Lacognio, at the age of seventy-two years. His 
wife, the mother of our subject, died in 1886, 
at the age of sixty-five )'ears, and lies buried 
by the side of her husband. 

John B. Rogantine was reared on the pa- 
rental farm in Italy, early becoming inured 
to the labors appertaining thereto, laboring ear- 
nestly even as a child in farm work. His early 
educational advantages were extremely meager, 
but they have been supplemented through his 
practical association with men and affairs until 
he has a valuable amount of practical knowl- 
edge which effectively supplements the rudi- 
mental foundation which his study laid in boy- 
hood's days. In 1872 he left the home of his 
youth, crossed the ocean to New York City, 
shortly thereafter locating for two years in 
New Jersey, twenty-two miles from New York 
City, then proceeded on his westward way, 
and after a year passed in Chicago, making 
his home in Nevada for two years, where he 
was employed in mining. Thence in 188 1 he 
started on a prospecting tour through the 
mountain districts of Utah, remaining in that 
section until 1883, when he was one of the 
pioneers who commenced te» settle the section 
of Bingham county contiguous to Idaho Falls, 
and here he took up homestead and timber cul- 
ture claims situated eight miles northeast of 
Idaho Falls, and from that time to the present 
he has given of his energies in developing his 
property and changing the rugged appearance 



of primeval nature into one of prosperous ag- 
riculture. He has made permanent improve- 
ments of the best character, was the second per- 
son to start work on the canal system, of the 
Eagle Rock and Willow Creek Water Co., be- 
ing one of the originators and first members of 
the corporation, and also being' identified in a 
substantial manner with the Farmers' Friend 
Irrigation Canal System. He has brought his 
entire place to a high state of cultivation, its 
improvements including - a commodious and 
substantial residence and the necessary out- 
buildings, barns, corrals, etc., for the conduct- 
ing of an extensive ranch enterprise. 

Mr. Rogantine has attained marked suc- 
cess in his efforts since locating in this section 
of the state, achieving the same entirely 
through his own industry and determined ap- 
plication, by hard labor and by watchful care 
producing- every dollar represented in his fine 
homestead, and is a progressive member of 
society, being decidedly public-spirited in his 
duty to his political party, to which he gives 
loyal support, although he has never sought 
public office. In his efforts in the development 
of his place he has been ably assisted by his 
practical wife, Agnes, a native of Denmark, 
to whom he was married in 1887, she being the 
mother of five children by a former husband 
and of one by Mr. Rogantine, whose name is 
Leo L. Rogantine. 

CHARLES PANTER. 

Among' the prosperous, enterprising and 
successful farmers and stockmen of Bannock 
county, Idaho, there is none whose lines are 
cast in fairer places nor whose energy, public 
spirit, patient industry and quiet, unassuming 
worth are more in evidence than Charles 
Panter, the subject of this review, who en- 
jovs. a wide popularity among his acquaint- 
ances. He was born on May 28, 1872. in 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Utah, being the son of William and Emma 
(Bennett) Panter, who in the early fifties emi- 
grated from their native England, coming di- 
rect to Utah, where the father became a 
farmer, in his church attaining the position of 
counsellor of the stake Seventies. He is dead, 
while the widowed mother of the subject is 
now residing on a farm in the Snake River 
Valley of Idaho. Thomas Bennett, the mater- 
nal grandfather of Mr. Panter, came to Utah 
from England in one of the early emigrations 
and long since passed from earth, his widow 
still residing at West Jordan. 

Receiving his education in the district 
schools of Utah, early in life Mr. Panter com- 
menced the activities of business for himself 
as a laborer on his brother's ranch, thereafter 
coming to the Gentile Valley, Bannock county. 
Idaho, and establishing a home for himself. 
He secured a suitable tract of unimproved land, 
engaged in the development of his property, 
which he has brought into a high state of 
improvement, securing water for irrigation and 
by bis care, attention and discriminating meth- 
ods of procedure becoming one of the repre- 
sentative and prosperous farmers of the val- 
ley. His chief crops are grain and hay. 

On June 27, 1894, Mr. Panter and Miss 
Maggie Cahoon were united in matrimony. 
She is a daughter of Rex and Mary (Johnson') 
Cahoon, her father being born at Nauvoo. 111.. 
and her mother in Missouri. Thev settled in 
the Gentile Valley in early days and have been 
most useful members of the community, from 
the pioneer days manifesting a most Christian 
cordiality and hospitality to all newcomers. 
The family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Panter em- 
braces five bright and interesting children. 
Charles Reynolds, born March 28. 1895 ; Wil- 
fred, born June 3, 1896; Vera Charlotte, born 
September 1, 1808; William Jarvis, born No- 
vember 5. 1900. and Kenneth Dale, born Jan- 
uary 24. 1902. ' The family worthily stands 



high in the good graces of the people and they 
have many friends, who find their cheerful 
home a center of attractive hospitality. They 
are especially active in church enterprises, Mr. 
Panter having long been the superintendent 
of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement As- 
sociation, being now the ward clerk and the su- 
perintendent of the Sunday school of his ward. 

H'EZEKIAH H. PECK. 

The ancestry of this honored citizen of 
Thatcher. Idaho, comes of the best New Eng- 
land stock. Descended from ancient English 
families, members of which, however, have 
domiciled in the Eastern states for many years. 
Mr. Peck himself was born in Nauvoo, 111., 
on March 19, 1845, a son °f M. H. and Mary 
(Thorn) Peck, the father being a native of 
Vermont and the mother of New York. The 
father, who was a son of Ebenezer Peck, was a 
blacksmith by trade and occupation, and after 
coming to Utah with his family from Nauvoo 
in 1848. he carried on his trade in Salt Lake 
City, at the same time overseeing the labors of 
his ranch, six miles distant from that city. He 
was a very intelligent man. practically inter- 
ested in the advancement of the community 
and in beneficent projects, standing well in 
public estimation and also in the church for 
his correct manner of life, for many years hold- 
ing the office of counsellor to the bishop of his 
ward. His death occurred on June 17. 1884. 
his estimable wife, Man-, surviving him, and 
now. having attained the venerable age of 
eighty-eight years, she is, at Provo, Utah, tran- 
quilly awaiting the call to cross the river of 
death. Her strong vitality was inherited, her 
father dying at the age of ninety-seven years. 

Verv much as other lads of his age and vi- 
cinity passed their youth did Mr. Peck of this 
review pass his. Under the fostering care of 
his mother he was well grounded in the good 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



52; 



instructions that have borne good fruit in his 
after years, while in his father's smithy he was 
early taught to labor and acquired the theory 
and the practice of blacksmithing, interspersing 
these labors with work on the ranch and at- 
tendance at school, thus passing the time until 
he was twenty-one years old. Soon after com- 
mencing life for himself Mr. Peck engaged in 
teaming and freighting between Salt Lake and 
Omaha, later including Montana in the field 
of his operations, thereafter being employed in 
teaming on the Union Pacific Railroad, follow- 
ing this vocation in all for ten years. In 1874 
he concluded to adopt ranching as a business 
and for this purpose sought the valley of his 
present residence, arriving here on July 16. 
1874, and at once occupied the land which he 
now owns and on which he makes his home. 
He has largely improved the place, which now 
consists of 240 acres of land, well-watered, well- 
improved and with a substantial and comfort- 
able residence and other necessary buildings, 
corrals, etc., for his stockraising and farming 
operations, raising fine crops of hay and run- 
ning a nice drove of cattle. Mr. Peck was 
postmaster of Gentile Valley, the first office 
established in this valley, and held the position 
for ten years. He was also a counsellor to the 
hishop when this territory was a portion of the 
Cache stake. 

On December 21, 1867, were wedded Mr. 
Peck and Miss Mary S. Nowlin, a daughter of 
Byran W. and Mary (Cummings) Nowlin, na- 
tives of Tennessee and Maine, the father be- 
ing born on July 4, 18 15, and the mother on 
April 8, 1830. After their arrival at Salt Lake 
City Mr. Nowlin worked at carpentry in the 
city, being employed in the construction of the 
Temple block. On May 2, 1877, he was acci- 
dentally killed while hanging a saw in a lum- 
ber mill in Butterfield Canyon. Mrs. Nowlin 
long survived him, her death occurring at Soda 
Springs, Idaho, on May 11, 1902. A brief rec- 



ord of the twelve children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Peck will fittingly close this review : Hezekiah. 
born February 6, 1870, in Salt Lake City ; 
Mary G, born October 30, 187 1, deceased; Ivy 
M., born March 20, 1874; Nellie R., born Feb- 
ruary 5, 1876; Byran W., born December 31, 
1877, died at Ai, Tenn., on February 27, 1900; 
Horton F., born July 21, 1882; Cecil N, born 
March 18, 1884; Susie E.. born March 4, 
1886, died in infancy: G. Fern, born Novem- 
ber 6, 1887; G. Ion, born October 9, 1889; Iris, 
born August 31, 189 1, and Dean E., who was 
born September 11, 1893. 

L. M. HOPSON. 

Two branches of the Hopson family were 
early established on American soil. The most 
of the name in New England and the states 
constituting the Northwest Territory descend 
from ancestors coming from England to the 
colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut in 
early days, while those of the name who came 
down through Virginia and Kentucky stock 
axid ancestry may well be proud of their early 
progenitors in the Jamestown and later colo- 
nies of the Old Dominion. Two brothers. 
Samuel and William Hopson, were early emi- 
grants from England to Virginia, Samuel dy- 
ing in London before 1750, while on a business 
visit to the old country. William had teen 
finely educated in England, was well versed in 
Latin and French arid w^as gifted with a very 
retentive memory, quick penetration of 
thought, sound judgment and a handsome per- 
son, being tall, stately and of a well-developed 
and harmonious physique. Devoting himself 
to the law, for which he had made an ample 
preparation, he was for many years an attor- 
ney of note. A fluent orator, he was often 
asked to take a candidacy for important and 
high offices, but his love for rural life prevented 
his acceptance of any. His home was on a 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



beautiful estate near the James River, and of 
his several sons, none followed him in law, be- 
ing commercial men and planters. 

This Hopson family has been a prolific one. 
sending out stalwart sons to build up new com- 
munities in every generation. They were early 
in Kentucky. Side by side with Boone and 
Calloway, they participated in the contests with 
the Indians, and were early carving- out plan- 
tations and homes from the new lands of the 
state. In nearly every generation has the name 
of William Hopson perpetuated that of the 
first American father of the line, and the bear- 
ers i if the name have ever been active in the 
local public affairs of the various sections of 
their residence, citizens of merit and worth. 

One of the representative members of the 
present generation of the old Virginian family 
is Leander M. Hopson, of Pocatello, Idaho, a 
successful and popular grocer of that progres- 
sive city. He was a native of Trigg county, 
Ky., born on February 20, 1845, a son of 
James D. and Eliza C. Hopson, the mother be- 
ing a daughter of Evan and Amanda Hopson, 
and the father following in Trigg county the 
vocation of a saddler for many years. In the 
family circle of this household were numbered 
these children, Leander M., of this review; 
Lucy A., who married John Wash and is now 
deceased; William S.. a prominent member of 
the business circles of Pocatello; Charlie A., 
who is now dead ; Catherine (Airs. Thomas A. 
Moody), deceased; John D., who is a worthy 
and prominent attorney and business man of 
Breckinridge, Tex. 

The eldest of the children of his parents, 
L. M. Hopkins early knew the meaning and 
the experience of labor. He attended the 
schools of the neighborhood, becoming well 
fitted at the age of sixteen years to take the 
place of clerk in a country store, in the inter- 
ests of which he gave effective service for a 
definite term of years, thereafter following ag- 



ricultural operations until 1882, when he came 
to Malad City, Utah, and during the nine years 
of his residence there he was engaged in vari- 
ous occupations and was the holder of impor- 
tant official positions, among them being the 
deputy postmaster at Malad and also serving as 
a very efficient deputy United States marshal. 
In 1 89 1 Mr. Hopson removed his residence 
to the new town of Pocatello, Idaho, where he 
continues to maintain his home. He was one 
of the pioneer business men of the place, open- 
ing and conducting the second grocery store 
established in the infant Gale City. This busi- 
ness has developed and extended, has kept pace 
with the rapid advancement of the town. and. 
under the personal superintendence of Mr. 
Hopson. stands in the front rank of the mer- 
cantile establishments of its character. His 
business is centrally located on Cleveland ave- 
nue, in the Young Men's Christian Association 
building - , where a large stock of well- 
selected groceries and other commodities 
connected with that line are adapted to 
diversified calls of patrons. His sagacity. 
thrift and energy have brought to him sub- 
stantial financial rewards. and he is the owner 
of valuable real-estate interests in Pocatello 
and in Ogden, Utah. He has ever kept the 
even tenor of his way in a quiet and unosten- 
tatious manner, by his kindness doing much to 
aid others to advance in the journey of life, 
and he has drawn to himself many strong and 
valuable friends, who honor and respect him 
for his true and sincere manliness and for his 
prompt and hearty assistance in all matters 
tending- to the advancement of the community 
and the well-being- of the people. He is in a 
hearty accord with the principles and policies 
of the Democratic party, but has ever contented 
himself with performing his full duty as a pri- 
vate in its ranks. His inflexible integrity, 
earnest convictions and positive character have 
been fullv demonstrated to the citizens of his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



525 



residence city in his support of many enter- 
prises for the benefit of its people, while many 
young - men have been largely aided and bene- 
fited by his wise and fatherly advice, assistance 
and encouragement. He has without a percep- 
tible effort won the esteem and confidence of 
the entire business element, his courtesy and 
frankness keeping the friendships which his 
business ability attracts. On July 7, 1867, Mr. 
Hopson was united in marriage, in Trig-gs 
county, Ky., with Miss Maria V. Campbell, a 
native of that county and a daughter of Wil- 
liam and Sarah J. Campbell. Her father was 
a Kentucky farmer and a son of David Camp- 
bell, also a farmer who served his country as a 
valiant soldier in the war of 18 12, on the bat- 
tlefield bravely maintaining the reputation his 
Scotch ancestors of the noted clan Campbell 
had enjoyed for many generations in their na- 
tive Scotland. The Campbells, like the Hop- 
.sons, were early domiciled in Virginia, to later 
become early settlers and pioneers of Ken- 
tucky. The only child of the marriage of Mr. 
and Mrs. Hopson was a daughter, Minnie I., 
a promising maiden, who died and was buried 
in Ogden in 1890, after accomplishing twenty- 
two years of happy life. 

MARTIN HENDERSON, Jr. 

Martin Henderson, Jr., of Clifton. Oneida 
county, is a native of Utah, but has lived since 
he was ten years of age in Idaho, and has been 
an active force in the growth and development 
of the section of the state -in which his lot has 
been cast. He has exemplified in his daily life 
the best attributes of progressive American citi- 
zenship, aiding in building up the material in- 
terests of his community, taking a leading part 
in its public life, giving his counsel and his sup- 
port in behalf of every mercantile, industrial 
and educational element of good to his county, 
and laboring" with zeal and great efficiency in 



the work of his church for the exaltation of its 
beneficent activities and the elevation and im- 
provement of its people. He was born at Kays- 
ville, Utah, on July 23, 1856, the son of Mar- 
tin and Sarah (Wheeler) Henderson, the for- 
mer a native of Missouri. His parents were 
among the first settlers at Salt Lake City, 
where they were married, and soon after that 
event they moved to Kaysville, or where it now 
stands, being among the first adventurous 
white people who located there and helping to 
found the town. In 1862 they changed their 
residence to Brigham City, and after farming 
in that neighborhood some years moved to 
Richmond. In 1866 they migrated from Rich- 
mond to Malad City, this state, and during the 
next three years they were among the progress- 
ive and prosperous farmers in that locality. 
In 1869 Clifton secured the benefit of their 
citizenship and productive labors, as they then 
located on land between that town and Oxford, 
where they are now living - busily engaged in 
conducting one of the highly fertile and im- 
proved farms of that section of the county. 
Their son Martin grew to manhood on the pa- 
ternal homestead, and was educated in the 
schools near his home, living until he was ten 
years old in Utah and since that time in Idaho. 
When he reached the age of eighteen years he 
was married and at once began the business 
of life for himself on land located east of the 
ranch he now occupies, which he farmed until 
1880. He then homesteaded 160 acres two 
miles south of Clifton and later bought his 
present tract, which is in Clifton precinct, two 
miles and a half north of the town. This has 
been his home continuously since that time and 
on it he has built up a flourishing business as a 
farmer and stockgrower. He has added to his 
ranch until he has a considerable body of land 
in this neighborhood, and has increased his 
stock industry until it is one of the most exten- 
sive and progressive in the precinct. No inter- 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



est of the community has been neglected by him 
and even- potent and serviceable element of 
progress and development has been quickened 
and fostered by his enterprise and broad- 
minded activity. He is an ardent believer' in 
the doctrines of the Democratic party, but 
while taking a leading and influential part in 
political affairs, he is not desirous of public of- 
fice of any kind. In the interest of his church 
he has been from his youth an earnest and effi- 
cient worker, and to the government and ad- 
ministration of its affairs he has given good 
counsel and faithful labor in official stations of 
importance as well as in the rank and file of its 
faithful devotees. In November. 1886, he was 
appointed first counsellor to Bishop Garner of 
his ward, and on the retirement of that useful 
and venerated leader from the bishopric, Mr. 
Henderson was chosen as first counsellor to 
his successor. Bishop Farmer, whom he is still 
serving in that capacity. He was married at 
Clifton, on December 8, 1S74, to Miss Susan 
E. Bingham, who was born and reared in 
Utah, the daughter of Levi P. and Sarah E. 
(Lusk) Bingham. Her parents came to Utah 
in 1853 and settled at Perry, north of Ogden. 
A little while later the}- changed their resi- 
dence to Brigham City, where they remained 
until 1873. In that year they came to the Clif- 
ton section of Oneida county, this state, and lo- 
cated on the ranch now occupied by Bishop 
Farmer, not far from Oxford. There they en- 
gaged in farming for a period of twenty years. 
In April, 1893. the mother died, and three 
years later the father returned to Brigham City, 
where he has since made his home. Mr. and 
Mrs. Henderson have had eleven children, 
Martin P.. John H., George R. (deceased), Cal- 
vin V.. Susan A., D. Ashel (deceased), Clar- 
ence O., Alice I., Lucy (deceased). Myrtle E. 
and Orilla. The oldest son, Martin P. Hender- 
son, is now on a mission to Germany in the 
interests of his church. 



THOMAS A. HOWELL. 

For many generations the families of which 
Thomas A. Howell is so typical and wi irthy a 
scion have lived and labored in this country, 
identified with its interests, conspicuous in its 
history, contributing to its advancement and 
illustrating the best elements and attributes of 
its citizenship. His parents, Thomas C D. 
and Sarah (Stewart) Howell, were Southern- 
ers in bjrth and training, the former having 
been born in Wayne comity, N. C. on Febru- 
ary 22, 1814, and the latter in Sumner county. 
Tenn., on January 15, 18 15. In that section 
of the country they reached years of maturity 
and were educated, imbibing the spirit of its 
institutions and political theories, and filled 
with its lofty ideals of patriotism and public 
duty. On July 5, 1835, at the home of the 
mother in Tennessee, they were married, and 
near where they were then living they em- 
braced the doctrine of Mormonism in Decem- 
ber, 1843. In the spring of 1845 tne . v nioved 
with the children they then had to Nauvoo. 
111., at that time the central home of the church, 
where they remained until May. 1846. when, 
with the rest of the faithful, they fled from the 
heavy hand of intolerant persecution toward a 
new home that was to .be established in the 
wilds of the far West. They reached the vi- 
cinity of Council Bluffs. Iowa, and there, sur- 
rounded by friendly Indians, more hospitable 
than the people of their own race but of dif- 
ferent creeds, they went into winter quarters. 
Here Brigham Young instructed many of the 
men to enlist in the United States army for the 
Mexican war, and Mr. Howell was one of those 
who obeyed the instruction, joining what was 
known as the Mormon battalion on July 16, 
1846. This body marched to Santa Fe. and from 
there to San Diegr> ami Los Angeles. Calif., 
where they were mustered out of the serv- 
ice on July 16, 1847. About 200 of the num- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



527 



ber then formed a company to march to Utah 
for permanent settlement. When they reached 
Fort Hall, Idaho, the sick and disabled, above 
twenty in number, Mr. Howell among them, 
went to Salt Lake City, arriving there in Sep- 
tember. He remained there about a year and 
then returned to Council Bluffs for his family, 
from whom he had been separated for two 
years. He took his family to Missouri and 
there worked at various occupations until he 
got money enough together to fit out a team 
for an expedition across the plains to Utah, 
where he had determined to reside. In 1852 
the trip was made and they settled at Payson, 
sixty miles south of Salt Lake. Mr. Howell 
was captain of the train he crossed the plains 
with and conducted it with skill and success. 
In the spring of i860 he moved his family to 
Cache Valley and located near the site of the 
present town of Franklin, they being among 
the very first settlers at that point. In the 
spring of 1865 they came to the neighborhood 
of Clifton and took up land which is now a part 
of the ranch owned and occupied by their son, 
Thomas A. Howell, which lies in Clifton pre- 
cinct, Oneida county. The whole of this coun- 
try was then wild and undeveloped, and was 
filled with hostile Indians, who compelled the 
new inhabitants to take refuge at Oxford and 
build a fort for their protection, which they oc- 
cupied for a period of four years, in the mean- 
time going to their land at intervals in com- 
panies and attending to its tillage. When 
quiet was restored and safety was assured Mr. 
Howell moved his family back to the place and 
engaged in farming and raising.stock until the 
deaths of the parents, that of the mother oc- 
curring October 10, 1886, and that of the fa- 
ther on September 4, 1902. He was one of 
the most prominent, influential and highly re- 
spected citizens of southern Idaho, active in 
public matters and church affairs, progressive, 



enterprising and public-spirited, devoted to the 
welfare of his community and allowing - noth- 
ing to stand in the way of promoting it that 
could be removed. His son Thomas, who has 
inherited his character and spirit with his name, 
was nine years of age when the family came 
to live in this valley, and here he reached man's 
estate, received his education and began the 
career which has been so creditable to him and 
so beneficial to the community. He met the 
Indians in daily intercourse, after they became 
friendly, and became familiar with their lan- 
guage and ways. He worked with his father 
on the farm, and when he became a man took 
charge of it and managed its operations, re- 
maining with his parents as long as they lived. 
Since their death he has continued to operate 
the farm and cany on the stock business on 
the old place, which was given him by his fa- 
ther. He has followed the noble example of 
private virtue and public usefulness set by his 
father, and is one of the best known and most 
highly respected citizens of the county. From 
early manhood he has been a faithful, zealous 
and efficient worker in his church, serving for 
many years as superintendent of the Sunday 
school and a member of the quorum of Seventy. 
He was formerly also president of the Young 
Men's Society. In politics he is an ardent 
Democrat and takes a leading part in political 
affairs. 

On February 19. 1875, Mr. Howell was 
married to Miss Harriet A. Henderson, of 
Utah, daughter of Samuel and Harriet (Haw- 
kins) Henderson, natives of Missouri and New 
York respectively. The marriage was solem- 
nized at Clifton, and they have six children 
living, Emma A. (Mrs. Hooker), Thomas O., 
Elmer V., William P., Edith C. and Marion. 
Seven others have died, Samuel J.. Harriet, 
Rhoda E.. Sarah L., Charles, Myrtle A. and 
Henrv. 



528 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



JOHN SANT. 

From his youth this pioneer rancher and 
merchant, prominent and influential civic force, 
zealous churchman and leading; public spirit of 
Clifton, Oneida county. Idaho, has been tem- 
pest-tossed, toil-burdened and danger-threat- 
ened. His life has been one of adventure and 
thrilling incident, of severe trial and lasting tri- 
umph, of modest worth and large accomplish- 
ments. He was born in Middlewhich. Cheshire. 
England, on November 30, 1838, the son of 
John and Mary (Shaw) Sant, of that locality, 
where their forefathers had lived for many 
generations. The father was a farmer there 
and the son was reared on the paternal home- 
stead and educated at the neighboring schools. 
At an early age he became a boatman on the ca- 
nals and rivers of his native land, and later was 
a sailor on sailing and steam vessels for more 
ambitious voyages, serving for a number of 
years as first mate on one of the former. His 
parents embraced the Mormon creed when he 
was but eight years old, and he may therefore 
be said to have been reared in the faith. In 
186 1. early in the year, the family emigrated 
to America and crossed the plains with ox 
teams to Utah, the young man walking nearly 
all of the way from the Mississippi River and 
driving cattle. They arrived at Salt Lake City 
in September of that year and within the same 
month settled at Smithfield, in the Cache Val- 
ley, a region which had just been opened to set- 
tlement. The country was wild and unproduc- 
tive and the Indians were unfriendly. The men 
in the settlement were obliged to work all day 
and often stand guard against the savages all 
night. In the spring of 1864 the family moved 
to the Bear Lake Valley and located where 
Bloomington now stands. For several vears 
they met with serious reverses and disappoint- 
ments. Their crops were killed by frost and 
the winters were long and dreadful in their se- 



verity. For a time during one of them the 
snow was twenty-five feet deep and many had 
to work their way through it. As he was young 
and strong lie was obliged to take a leading 
part in all works of difficulty and danger, and 
these were always present. They remained at 
Bloomington five years, engaged in farming 
and raising stock, and in the spring of 1869 
removed to Oxford. Idaho, where they passed 
a year. In the spring of 1870 thev came to the 
part of the valley in which they now live and 
in which there was not at that time a house or 
a tree. The land was not surveyed until two 
years later, but they "stuck their stakes" on 
what is now the townsite of Clifton and 
founded the town. The father laid it out and 
gave it the name it bears, which was sug- 
gested by the heavy overhanging cliffs that give 
variety and picturesqueness to the landscape. 
When the land was sun-eyed they established 
their lines and went to work with better sys- 
tem. John and his father and brothers all lo- 
cated on homesteads, that of the subject of this 
review lying one mile and a half northeast of 
the prospective town, and his father's place ad- 
joined his. Tihev prosecuted their farming op- 
erations vigorouslv in spite of the most adverse 
circumstances, and applied to the development 
of the section the enterprise for which they have 
all been noted. John Sant brought to this re- 
gion the first threshing machinery that was 
ever seen here, and for several years threshed 
nearly all the grain that was grown in the 
whole countrv around for many miles on every 
side. In 1876 he opened the first store in the 
neighborhood and did an extensive mercantile 
business, supplying- the wants of a very large 
scope of country. In the fall of 1877 he sold 
the store and resumed active charge of his 
farming, which he had still conducted while 
carrying on the store. Tn 1888 he bought out 
the co-operative store which had succeeded his 
and in which he had stock, and he conducted 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



5 2 9 



this until December, 1893, when nearly every- 
thing connected with it was destroyed by fire. 
He then once more turned his attention to his 
farming and stock industries and prosecuted 
them under his personal management until the 
autumn of 1900, when he purchased the store 
and stock which he operated until May, 1904, 
when he sold out to Adelbert Henderson. He 
still owns his original ranch and has other land 
in different directions from the town, being one 
of the largest landholders in the county, but his 
home has almost all of the time been in the 
town of Clifton, where he has a fine modern 
residence opposite his store. He was the sec- 
ond postmaster of the town and has held the 
office whenever he has been in business there. 
In politics he is a Republican and is an earnest 
supporter of his party. He is one of the most 
progressive and public-spirited men in the pre- 
cinct, and is known and highly respected by all 
classes of his fellow citizens. In church work 
he is fervent, faithful and efficient, always in 
the van of its requirements, and always inspir- 
ing its activities with his own enthusiasm. For 
years he has served as superintendent of the 
Sunday schools and as president of the council 
of high priests. He was leader of the ward 
choir for a long time, officiating in that capac- 
ity at the time of the historic visit of Brigham 
Young to this section, and has also been ward 
teacher for many years. His mother died on 
August 27, 1877, and his father on October 
15, 1887, and both are buried in the town 
which they founded. 

On April 16, 1861, Mr. Sant was married 
to Miss Martha E. Roscoe, the marriage tak- 
ing place on board the ship the day they sailed 
from England. Her parents were George and 
Martha (Britland) Roscoe, natives of Eng- 
land who came to America on the ship with 
her and her husband. The last years of their 
lives were passed at Clifton and their remains 
now rest beneath its soil. The Sant household 



was blessed with fifteen children, seven of 
whom are living, John George, Adelaide (Mrs. 
Lowe), Robert R, Martha E. (Mrs. Bunn), 
Walter, Joseph and Anna J. Of the others, 
Arthur died on March 10, 1902, aged thirty- 
seven years, and Mary A., William, Thomas, 
Lucy, Abel, Amoss and Hyrum died in in- 
fancy. The two oldest sons are married. John 
George has a ranch near Clifton, and Robert 
makes his home at Salt Lake. Their mother 
died on November 23, 1893, and in February, 
1894, at Logan, Utah, the father was united 
with his second wife. Miss Benta Olson, who 
is a native of Sweden. 

THOMAS SANT. 

Thomas Sant, of Clifton, Oneida county, 
this state, is one of the largest landholders and 
most progressive stockmen, as he is one of the 
most influential and respected citizens of that 
portion of Idaho. Although born in England, 
he has lived nearly all of his life in this coun- 
try, and since he was nine years of age in the 
section where he now resides, and is therefore 
almost wholly a product of his county. He is 
thoroughly American in feeling and devotion to 
the welfare of his adopted country, and is a 
loyal and patriotic son of Idaho as well, deeply 
interested in her progress, her good name, her 
advancement in every department of true 
greatness and the lasting and substantial com- 
fort and happiness of her people. Llis life be- 
gan in Cheshire, England, on January 3, i860, 
and his parents were John and Mary A. (Shaw) 
Sant, a more extended account of whose lives 
will be found in the sketch of his brother, John, 
on other pages of this work. When he was but 
little more than a year old his parents brought 
their family to this country and settled in Utah 
and when he was nine they came to Oneida 
county, this state, to live, raising their domestic 
altar in its verv wilderness and trusting- their 



53° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



mercantile and industrial hopes to its waste of 
sagebrush and treeless plains. The subject's 
educational facilities were necessarily very 
crude and limited, but be made the best use 
of them, such as they were, and reached years 
of maturity a well-informed, wide-awake, 
closely observant and self-reliant young man. 
He remained at home and worked on his fa- 
ther's farm until he was twenty-one, thai mar- 
ried and engaged in farming for himself, hav- 
ing bought the home place from bis father, lo- 
cated one mile and a half north of Clifton. He 
lived on the farm for about two years, and at 
the end of that period purchased the residence 
in town which he has since occupied as his 
home. He still owns the old homestead, which 
is one of the most valuable and attractive 
ranches in this section of the county, and has 
an abundance of other land in different loca- 
tions. He has devoted his life so far, in a busi- 
ness way, to farming and the stock industry, 
handling both cattle and sheep on an exten- 
sive scale, and producing them in large num- 
bers and of the best qualities. His methods 
are the best and most progressive known to the 
business, and bis influence in public affairs and 
the sen ices he renders to the community in 
every commendable way are commensur- 
ate with the wisdom and enterprise he 
displays in his private concerns. In poli- 
tics he is an unwavering Republican, 
and to the success of his party he is 
always a substantial contributor in counsel, in 
service, in loyalty and in more material sup- 
port. He is. however, free from political am- 
bition for himself and neither seeks nor desires 
public office of any kind. In his church he has 
ever been an active and earnest worker, serv- 
ing .as ward teacher for a number of years and 
doing whatever else the requirements de- 
manded and his opportunities allowed 

Mr. Sant was married, on October 12, 
1881, at Salt Lake City, to Miss Elizabeth L. 



Truscott, a native of Utah and daughter of 
John and Sarah Truscott, early settlers in that 
state. The fruit of this union numbered four. 
Laura E. (Mrs. Sant). Thomas H.. Mary M.. 
who died in infancy, and John T., who died at 
the age of six. His wife died on February >). 
1887, and on June 8th following he was mar- 
ried, at Logan, Utah, to Miss Jane Winter- 
bottom, a native of England, daughter of 
Thomas and Betsey (Sant) Winterbottom, who 
became Mormons in that country, where thev 
were born and reared, and where her father 
was drowned on November 13, 1871. The 
next year the widow and her children came to 
America and settled in L T tah. Some time later 
they moved to the Bear Lake country in Idahi 1, 
where Mrs. Sant grew to womanhood and re- 
ceived her education. Mr. and Mrs. Sant have 
had six children. Tressie J., who died on Sep- 
tember 1, 1894, aged six years and five months ; 
Marg'aret E., who died in infancy: Samuel L.. 
Ruth E., Eleanor, who died in infancy, and 
Ira W., comprising a happy family circle. 

GEORGE A. GRIFFETH. 

Successful in business, active and efficient 
in church work, broad-minded and progress- 
ive in public spirit. George A. Griffeth. of 
Fairview, Oneida county, this state, is an or- 
nament to the community in which he lives and 
has been a healthy stimulus to all its industrial, 
commercial, social and educational forces. He 
was born on January 5, 184c). in Warren 
county, 111., the son of Pattison D. and Eliza- 
beth (Carson) Griffeth. the former a native of 
New York and the latter of Pennsylvania. His 
father was a prosperous fanner in Warren 
county, TIL, and remained there until 1852. 
He and his wife were early converts to Mor- 
monism, being communicants of the church 
during the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 
and in the spring of 1852 crossed the plains 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



531 



to join their people in church fellowship in 
Utah. They located near where the city of 
Bountiful no\y stands and there and in Cedar 
Valley and at Lehi the father continued his 
farming operations until the spring of i860, 
when he moved his family into Cache Valley, 
settling at Hyde Park, being one of the three 
first settlers in the region, and making his home 
in that section until his death on May 13, 1901. 
His wife died on November 7, 1898, and both 
were buried at Hyde Park. Their son George 
came with them to the Cache Valley when he 
was a boy of eleven, and finished his educa- 
tion and reached maturity at Hyde Park. He 
then assisted his. father on the farm until April, 
1885, when he sold whatever interests he had 
at that place and came into Idaho, settling on 
the land he now occupies in Fairview precinct, 
three miles south of Preston. Fifteen years 
before this time, in 1870, he and his father had 
come to this part of the state and located land 
two miles west of Fairview, but they after- 
ward traded this for property at Hyde Park. 
When he finally located in Oneida county Mr. 
Griffeth put up the first cabin built in the vi- 
cinity of Fairview and for a number of years 
ran cattle on his land in partnership with his 
father. But when he came to make his home 
here and brought his family, he dissolved the 
partnership and since then he has conducted 
all his enterprises on his own account, abiding 
in the place where he had cast his lot and de- 
voting his energies to building up its prosper- 
ity, developing its resources and making it 
bright, beautiful and engaging with all the 
blessings of cultivated life. He is one of the 
fathers of the section and one of its most es- 
teemed and representative citizens. His home 
has long been one of its hospitable centers, and 
his influence has been potential for good to 
every commendable undertaking for which the 
community in which he lives has been noted. 
In church matters he has always taken an ac- 



tive and helpful part, aiding in the progress and 
expansion of the organization in every proper 
way, and giving to its members the example 
of a broad-minded, generous and soulful force 
in their midst. 

Mr. Griffeth was married on December 13, 
1869, to Miss Mary E. Thurman, a native of 
Nottinghamshire, England, the daughter of 
Edward and Mary A. (Gibson) Thurman, of 
that country. The mother and her children 
emigrated to America in 1854, and resided in 
Missouri near St. Louis, and in Illinois until 
1862. They then came to Utah and made their 
way direct to Hyde Park, where the mother 
died on May 22, 1S99. The family of Mr. and 
Mrs. Griffeth consists of eight children, George 
A., Mary E. (wife of Robert H. Bodily, of 
Fairview), Edward T., Elizabeth I. (wife of R. 
A. Talbot, of Lewiston), Pattison D., Maria 
G, Alice A. and Myrtha A. George and Ed- 
ward are married and have farms located near 
Dayton, where they are extensively and suc- 
cessfully engaged in ranching. 

JOSEPH S. PHILLIPS. 

Joseph S.. Phillips, of Preston, who is one 
of the most successful ranchmen and sheep- 
growers in Oneida county, is a native of Kays- 
ville, Utah, where he was born on February 
21, 1862, and where his parents, Edward and 
Martha (Taylor) Phillips, were among the first 
settlers. His father was born and reared in 
England, and was converted to the Mormon 
faith in that country in his early manhood. 
He came to the United States early in the for- 
ties and went at once to Nauvoo, where he re- 
remained until 1849, leaving with one of the 
last companies of the church people for their 
new home in the farther West, arriving at Salt 
Lake in the autumn of 1850. His wife was also 
English by nativity and came to Utah when 
young, locating at Salt Lake City, where they 



53- 



PROGRESSIl'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



were married. With two other families they 
settled at Kaysville, being practically the 
founders of the town, and there became pros- 
perous fanners. There the mother died in 
1865, and there also the father passed away, at 
the age of eighty-four, on December 1, 1896. 
He was at the time of his death the oldest set- 
tler in all that country, and was universally 
respected. He was prominent in church af- 
fairs and took an active part in church work, 
serving as counsellor to Bishop Ralph Kaye, 
the man for whom the town was named and 
who was its first bishop. His son Joseph 
grew to manhood and was educated at Kays- 
ville, and after leaving school worked with his 
father on the farm until he was twenty-one 
years old. He then, in 1883. took his father's 
sheep on shares with a view to carrying on an 
extensive sheep business, and brought them to 
Oneida county, this state, and ran them there 
for four years, mostly in the northern part of 
the county at the head of Battle Creek and 
vicinity. In 1887 he leased the sheep to an- 
other man and returned to Kaysville and rented 
his father's farm, which he conducted until 
April, 1 89 1, then came to Preston and bought 
the ranch on which he now lives, one mile and a 
half southeast of the center of the town. Here 
he started as a farmer, but during the follow- 
ing year he bought a flock of sheep and has 
ever since been engaged in the sheep industry, 
devoting his land to the production of hay, for 
which it is well adapted. Since settling here 
he has made large improvements in his prop- 
erty, building a good brick dwelling and other 
necessary structures. He has one of the choice 
places of the neighborhood and everything 
about it proclaims him to be a prosperous, en- 
terprising and progressive man. His services 
to the church have been extensive and valuable. 
He has been ward teacher for a number of 
years, and in 1897 was called on a mission to 
Illinois, where he remained until December, 



1899. On July 17, 1888. at Kaysville. Mr. 
Phillips was married to Miss Sarah V. Chris- 
tensen, a native of West Weber, Utah, the 
daughter of Erasmus and Priscilla (Mitchell) 
Christensen, the father a native of Denmark 
and the mother of England. The parents came 
to America when young, the father arriving in 
1848 and the mother in 1849. She and her 
parents lived five years in "the states" and 
came to Utah in 1853. After short residences 
at Huntsville and West Weber they settled at 
Hooper, where the mother died on September 
16, 1894, and the father is still living. Mr. 
and Mrs. Phillips have five children. Hazel C. 
Edward C, J. Milton, Priscilla B. and John 
D. The family is highly respected and influen- 
tial in the public life of the community as all 
its members are in church circles. 

JAMES C. TAYLOR. 

The youngest of fourteen children born to 
his parents, twelve of whom came to live in 
Utah, and orphaned by the death of his father 
when he was but two years old. James C. Tay- 
lor, of Fairview, Oneida county, Idaho, began 
life with no promise of fortune's favors and 
without the aid of adventitious circumstances. 
Yet out of the hard conditions of his lot, by 
his own efforts and force of character he 
builded an estate of competence and independ- 
ence in worldly wealth and made a career alike 
creditable to himself and useful to the people 
among whom he has lived. The place of his 
birth is Ray county. Mo., and the time was 
February 27, 1837. His parents were Wil- 
liam and Elizabeth (Patrick) Taylor, the for- 
mer a native of North Carolina and the latter 
of South Carolina. They settled in Missouri 
some time in the twenties, and the father was 
engaged in farming in Ray county, that state, 
until 1839, when he started to move his family 
to Nauvoo. 111., the central home of the Mor- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



533 



mon church, which he and his wife had joined. 
The father died while on -the journey and the 
sorrowing mother with her household about 
her, continued to their destination. They re- 
mained at Nauvoo until 1846, then started with 
the first companies of the faithful for the new 
home of the sect in the farther West. They 
wintered with the rest at Council Bluffs on the 
Missouri, and in the spring of 1847, when a 
large number of the camp started onward on 
their western way, the mother determined to 
remain where they were comfortable a while 
longer until her children were in better condi- 
tion for the long and wearying jaunt across 
the plains. In the spring of 1849 the trip was 
made, and on their arrival in Utah they settled 
at Farmington, remaining there until the fol- 
lowing spring, when they moved to Kaysville 
and, settling on good land at that place, en- 
gaged in farming. The older children of the 
family were of sufficient size and strength and 
were otherwise qualified to aid very materially 
in conducting the farm and looking after the 
wants of the rest. On this farm the subject 
of this brief review grew to manhood, gain- 
ing strength, suppleness and self-reliance in 
its useful though trying labors, and in the 
crude and primitive schools of the vicinity he 
received what education was possible under the 
circumstances. After leaving school he worked 
on the home farm and on other places with his 
brothers, and when he reached the age of six- 
teen years took charge of his mother's farm 
and managed it under her directions. In i860 
he was married and bought a farm in the neigh- 
borhood of bis home, which he farmed until 
1867. He then moved to Ogden Valley, build- 
ing the first, house at the present town of Eden 
and there renewing his farming industry. 
After three years spent in that locality he re- 
turned to Kaysville and made his home there 
until 1872, when he sold out his interests in 
Utah and came to Fairview, homesteadins - on 



his present ranch in that precinct, three and 
one-half miles south of Preston. There was 
but one settler in these parts before him, Den- 
nis Wind, who left here soon after 1880, so 
that Mr. Taylor is now and has been for years 
the oldest pioneer in the neighborhood. He 
has also been one of its inspiring forces, mov- 
ing all the activities of the section to vigorous 
industry and directing their progress along 
Tines of healthy and permanent development. 
The entire region was wild sagebrush land 
when he came, and now it is one of the rich- 
est farming countries in southern Idaho. The 
result has not been wrought without great ef- 
fort and sacrifice, nor yet without abiding hope 
and confidence in the possibilities of the terri- 
tory. The hardships were many, but they 
were patiently endured. The dangers to life 
and property were great and often imminent, 
but they were met with lofty courage. The 
progress was slow, but it was steady and sure. 
And the very difficulties of the situation not 
only multiplied and intensified the efforts of 
the toilers, but increased and heightened their 
pleasure in the triumphs they won. In 1876, 
as a means of great benefit to the agricultural 
interests of the region, the settlers formed the 
Cub River Canal Co. and put in its irrigating 
plant, taking the water out of Cub River, nine 
miles distant, and running the ditches all over 
this section and the Lewiston, Utah, section 
also. It is one of the largest irrigating plants 
in this portion of the country and its originators 
and promoters are entitled to great credit for 
their enterprise and public spirit. For five 
years Mr. Taylor was a director in this com- 
pany and g'ave its business the benefit of his 
wisdom and excellent judgment. He has al- 
ways been active in Avorks of public improve- 
ment and the general welfare of the county, 
and is widely known as one of the representa- 
tive and influential men of this part of the 
state. His beautiful farm, with its comfort- 



534 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



able dwelling attractively embowered in great 
elms and cottonwoods. its complete appoint- 
ments and its advanced state of cultivation, 
sufficiently proclaims his enterprise and pro- 
gressiveness as well as his good taste and gen- 
erosity of mind. In church affairs he has been 
very zealous and energetic, serving as counsel- 
lor to Bishop Hyde, the first bishop of the 
ward, and in politics he is an ardent and ac- 
tive Democrat. He has been married twice 
and is the father of fourteen children, Mary 
A., James G., Elizabeth (deceased). William 
R., Sarah L., H. Caldwell, George 0., Charles 
H.. Austin A.. Joseph T., Lora, Dora (de- 
ceased), Millie and Lawrence J. Air. Taylor has 
a very thrifty and fruitful orchard, which he 
set out against the advice of his neighbors and 
thus has demonstrated that this is an unusually 
fine fruit country, which it was never before 
popularly believed to be. 

SOLOMON H. HALE. 

Solomon H. Hale, of Preston, belongs to 
the distinguished family of the name that has 
a glorious record in both English and Ameri- 
can history, and numbers among its renowned 
men Sir Matthew Hale, lord chief justice of 
England, and Nathan Hale, one of the early 
martyrs to liberty in this country. There are 
now some 23,000 members of the family, and 
its name has adorned every elevated and ad- 
mired walk of life with the noblest traits of 
manhood and womanhood, the learning of the 
scholar, the eloquence of the orator, the cour- 
age of the soldier, the patriotism of the states- 
man, the genius of the writer and the daring 
of the pioneer all being set down to its credit, 
and all repeated many times in its membership. 
Mr. Hale was born at Ouincy. 111., on April 
30, 1839, while his parents, Jonathan and Olive 
(Boynton) Hale, then recent converts to Mor- 
monism, were on their way to join the great 



body of the church at Nauvoo, that stale. 
where he was later appointed bishop of one 
of the wards in that city. They were natives 
of Massachusetts, and could trace their ances- 
try back in an unbroken and distinguished line 
to the year 1400, and through all the varia- 
tions of Colonial history in New England. In 
1830 they moved from their native state to 
Ohio, but after a short residence there went u > 
Nauvoo. where they remained until 1846. then 
joined the first company to start for the new 
home of the church in the far West. They 
reached Council Bluffs in the fall and crossed 
over the Missouri River to Winter Quarters. 
At Council Bluffs, on September 4th of that 
year, the father died, and the mother followed 
him to the better world a few days later, as 
did two daughters, their youngest children. 
Four children were left in orphanage. Aroet L.. 
Rachel S.. Alma H. and Solomon H. The old- 
est son was a young man and the sister was 
also nearly grown at this time and they were 
able to keep the four together and continue 
the journey to the great Salt Lake Valley. 
which they did in the spring of 1848 with the 
second companv. 

They remained at Salt Lake four years, 
and during this time Solomon secured what 
education he could under the circumstances. In 
1852 his two brothers moved to Tooele count}-, 
where they engaged in farming on land which 
the}' still own and occupy. The sister was 
married and moved to San Bernardino, Calif., 
where she died some time in the seventies. 
Solomon went to Farmington, north of Salt 
Lake, to make his home with his uncle, J. H. 
Holmes, and worked on his farm until 1854. 
when he began the battle of life for himself 
in earnest by going to Utah Valley, near Lehi. 
and securing employment on a stock ranch. 
He remained there until 1856 and then re- 
moved with the first settlers with a herd of 
church cattle to what is now Logan in the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



535 



Cache Valley. They all intended to remain 
there, bnt in the spring of 1857 United States 
troops came along, under the command of 
General Johnston, and the settlers, by order 
of President Brigham Young, moved south. 
In the fall of the year they returned and Mr. 
Hale came with them. He passed the winter 
near Logan and in the ensuing spring of 1858 
went to Salt Lake to work for William H. 
Hooper, then one of the most extensive stock- 
growers and dealers in LTah. with his princi- 
pal ranches located about thirty miles north of 
Salt Lake City, where the town of Hooperville 
now is. Mr. Hale continued his work on the 
ranches until the spring of 1861, when he left 
his employ to break horses for the Pony Ex- 
press Co. in the Deep Creek Valley. There 
was such a demand for riding horses on the ex- 
press route at this time that Mr. Hale. who. 
by the, way, had the reputation of being the 
best rider in the country, was required to ride 
ten bronchos a da}'. This he kept up for five 
months, when he was broken down in health 
and returned to Salt Lake, spending the ensu- 
ing winter in Centerville. 

These were very troublous and dangerous 
times with the Indians. Some of the station 
keepers were killed and express riders shot 
and a general state of terror kept up. Mr. Hale 
was among those who suffered some verv nar- 
row escapes. One incident that showed well 
his braverv and adventurous spirit, which were 
so characteristic of him. was when he volun- 
teered to go at the head of nine men in pursuit 
of two savages who were known to be the prin- 
cipal cause of their trouble. For days they 
kept close watch upon 'their trail in the moun- 
tains, when, on their way to do further deeds 
of terror, the two braves passed the fatal spot 
where Mr. Hale and four others were success- 
ful in capturing and afterwards killing these 
two desperate and much-feared Indians. 

On May 1, 1862, he enlisted in the govern- 



ment service under .Captain Lot Smith's com- 
mand of Utah Volunteers and was appointed 
wagon-master and assigned to duty in protect- 
ing the mails on the overland route — all the 
government troops having been called off the 
plains, leaving the Indians in almost full con- 
trol and using their opportunity to murder em- 
igrants, burn stage houses, destroy coaches, kill 
the guards and generally keep up a state of ter- 
ror throughout the country. The Utah Volun- 
teers were used in restraining the savages and 
preserving order, putting up wires, protecting 
stage coaches and keeping up as far as possi- 
ble communication with the East. The)-' en- 
listed for ninety days, but were kept in service 
115, and on their way home, three days before 
their term expired, they reached Fort Bridger, 
where Indians had made a raid on the ranch 
of the old mountaineer, John Robinson, and 
taken off 136 horses and mules. 

Yielding to the appeals of the settlers, the 
forty volunteers set out upon the trail of the 
savages, following them in swift pursuit for 
eight days into the Snake River region, the 
then heart of the Indian country. However, 
they were not successful in overtaking the hos- 
tiles, so gave up the chase after having reached 
the vicinity of the Three Tetons. They crossed 
the Snake River at Meek's Ferry, north of 
Blackfoot, and on to Pocatello, and from there 
through the Malad Valley back to Salt Lake 
City, where they arrived on the 9th of August 
and were mustered out of service on the 14th. 
This expedition, though but one life was lost 
and that by drowning in the Lewis Fork of 
Snake River, has been recorded as being "one 
of the most hazardous in the annals of local 
Indiana warfare." During the eight days of 
their pursuit they were almost without food 
and suffered untold hardships in other ways. 
They subsisted principally upon what few birds 
and animals they could kill by the way and 
were at one time driven to the extreme measure 



536 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



of killing for food one of their pack horses. 
Mr. Hale remained in the vicinity of Salt 
Lake until April 17, 1863, when he was mar- 
ried there to Miss Anna Clark, a native of 
Ohio, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Gar- 
ner) Clark, the father born in Xew Jersey and 
the mother in Tennessee. They came to Utah 
in 1848, and after a short residence at Salt 
Lake moved to Provo, where the father started 
the first tannery in the territory. The mother 
died in southern Utah and the father at the 
home of a son at Whitney, Idaho. After their 
marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hale settled in Skull 
Valley, Utah, where he was in the employ of 
William H. Hooper, having charge of all his 
interests in that region. Mr. Hooper was one 
of the famous men of early Utah history, being 
prominent in public life as well as in business 
circles. In the autumn of 1865 Mr. Hale 
moved to the Bear Lake country, which then 
contained but few settlers. He bought land 
near the present town of Liberty and engaged 
extensively in the stock industry, raising, 
buying and selling cattle. He remained there 
until the spring of i860, when he changed his 
base of operations to Soda Springs, where he, 
in partnership with Brigham Young, Jr.. 
opened a livery, feed and sale stable. He kept 
up right along big stock interests, procuring 
hay land in the Gentile Valley for the raising 
of winter feed. He did the freighting from 
Logan, Utah, for the branch of the Z. C. M. I. 
in Soda Springs and acted as their Indian 
interpreter and trader. Here he built two fine 
residences and a billiard saloon, which was the 
best equipped of any north of Ogden City. 
These buildings are still standing and occupied. 
In the spring of 1872 he sold his interests 
in Soda Springs and procured other tracts of 
land in the central portion of Gentile Valley 
where the town of Thatcher now is. Here he 
started a new enterprise and went quite exten- 
sivelv into the stock business and soon became 



one of the leading stockmen of that whole val- 
ley. A peculiar incident in his locating in Gen- 
tile Valley was that the ranchmen and trappers 
then living on the west side of the river forbade 
Mormons from locating among them, claim- 
ing that the valley should be kept exclusiveh 
Gentile. It will be plainly seen from this 
where Gentile Valley derived its name from. 
Mr. Hale gained the friendship of his neigh- 
bors and before a great while a number of other 
Mormons settled there and finally a ward of 
the church was organized, over which he was 
appointed bishop. While living here he served 
his county (Oneida) for two years as one of its 
commissioners, during which term funds were 
appropriated for the building of the court 
house in Malad City, the Bear River bridge in 
Gentile Valley, etc. In April. 1890. he was 
called by the church to superintend the erec- 
tion of the Oneida Stake Academy, at Preston, 
to which town his family moved the following 
July, retaining their possessions in the Gentile 
Valley. It took about five years to build the 
academy and in 1894 Mr. Hale traded land* in 
the Gentile Valley for the ranch on which he 
now lives, about two miles south from the cen- 
ter of Preston. Here he has since maintained 
his home and carried on an extensive cattle and 
dairying business, also raising and selling large 
quantities of ha}' and handling- pure breeds of 
sheep. Throughout his mature life he has been 
active in church work. He was a member of 
the high council of Bear Lake stake from its 
organization until the formation of Mormon 
(now Thatcher) ward in Gentile Valley, when 
he became bishop of that ward, holding the po- 
sition until Oneida stake was formed, in the 
month of May. 1884. when he was made first 
counsellor to President William D. Hendricks. 
In August, 1887, he was called as first counsel- 
lor to President George C. Parkinson, of the 
Oneida stake, and is still filling the office. In 
politics he is a stanch Republican and is active 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



537 



in the service of his party. His family con- 
sists of eight children in all. Their names in 
order of birth are as follows : Solomon H., 
Jonathan J., S. Clark, Hattie V., Arta D., He- 
ber O., A. Alma and Lavinna. of whom three 
are deceased, Jonathan, Clark and Arta. 

Solomon H., Jr., the eldest son was born 
in Provo. Utah, May 30, 1864. He lived and 
worked at home with his parents until his mar- 
riage to Miss Ginerva Nowlin, December 8, 
1886. He made Gentile Valley his home and 
engaged in ranching, which business he fol- 
lowed until 1894, when he traded his posses- 
sions in the Gentile Valley for property near 
Preston. In the summer of 1900 he located in 
the town of Preston, where he built a nice 
home and opened up a liver}' business, erecting 
a large barn and equipping himself with new 
and good outfits throughout. Two years later 
Mr. and Mrs. Hale turned their dwelling into 
a hotel, which the}' are now running in connec- 
tion with the livery stable and transfer. Mr. 
Hale is quite ingenious and a splendid horse- 
man, so he is in almost constant demand wher- 
ever he is. In politics he is a stanch Demo- 
crat and quite an energetic worker for his 
part}'. 

Hattie V. was born September 10, 1872, 
at Soda Springs, was educated in the public 
schools and Avas married to M. H. Thatcher, 
June 11. 1890. They first located in Gentile 
Valley, but afterward moved to Preston, where 
they have since made their home. Mr. 
Thatcher has been engaged at different occupa- 
tions, principally that of dairyman. Mrs. 
Thatcher is an affectionate mother and quite 
devoted to her family of lovely children. 

Heber O., A. Alma and Lavinna were all 
born in Gentile Valley, March 5, 1880, October 
29, 1882, and August 14, 1884, respectively. 
They all are still found in the parental home. 
For several years they have been embracing 
the opportunity of gaining an education by at- 



tending the Oneida Stake Academy at Pres- 
ton. In continuation of his school course, He- 
ber 0. attended the Brigham Young College, 
in Logan City, Utah, for two years. In April, 
1901, he left school in response to a call to 
fill a three-years mission in Germany, which 
he did with much credit, returning home in 
the spring of 1904. 

JOHN MAUGHAN. 

With its wonderful organization, untiring 
energy and complete system of missionary 
work, the Mormon church has gathered into 
its fold converts from all parts of the world, 
and has brought them to the seat and center 
of its power for purposes of colonization and 
the development of the country in which it is 
principally established. Even' clime and tongue 
has given its quota to build up this remarkable 
institution, and among its members in and 
around Utah are to be found representatives 
of every civilization and people on the face of 
the globe that are recognized as enlightened 
and progressive. And among its communi- 
cants no class has been more zealous in spread- 
ing its influence abroad and establishing its 
power at home than those of English birth. 
To this class belongs John Maughan, of Wes- 
ton, Oneida county, this state, who is one of 
the most influential and representative of the 
faith in this part of the country. He was born 
on October 8, 1830, at Cumberland, England, 
a son of Peter and Ruth (Harrison) Maughan, 
of the same nativity as himself. They became 
members of the church in their native land in 
1838, and two years later the mother died. 
Soon after this event the father and his six 
children emigrated to the United States, the 
voungest child dying on the voyage. The sur- 
vivors settled at Kirkland, Ohio, where the 
church was then flourishing, and in the fall of 
1 84 1 moved to Nauvoo. 111., where its later 



53§ 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



headquarters had been established. There the 
father prospered as a mechanic and remained 
until 1846, when he took up his residence in 
the southwestern part of Wisconsin and 
wrought in the lead mines, where his son John 
also worked. School facilities were then very 
limited and the opportunities for using those 
that were available were few to boys in his 
situation. The subject's education was gained 
principally by study at home in the intervals 
of labor, but the exigencies of his condition 
increased his diligence in this, and also quick- 
ened his perceptive and reasoning faculties so 
that he gained a goodly store of that worldly 
wisdom that is acquired only in the harsh but 
effective school of experience. Father and son, 
and some of the other children, continued to 
work in the lead mines until April, 1856, when 
they went to Council Bluffs, where the win- 
ter quarters of the church were, and in the fol- 
lowing month started with a train to Utah. 
They reached their destination without incident 
worthy of note beyond the usual hardships and 
dangers of such caravans in those days, and set- 
tled at Tooele, where they remained a number 
of years. There Mr. Maughan was employed 
at farming and logging, and his father be- 
came a prosperous farmer. In 1854 they re- 
moved to near Garfield, where two years were 
passed in the same occupations, and in the au- 
tumn of 1856, with eight other families, the 
father. John and one of his brothers came to 
Cache Valley and located where Wellsville now 
stands, this company being the founders of the 
town. The father was appointed bishop of the 
church there, and the}' all engaged in farming. 
The father was later appointed presiding bishop 
of the Cache Valley, and also became promi- 
nent in politics, serving several terms in the 
territorial Legislature of Utah. John remained 
at Wellsville. farming, until the fall of 1863. 
He then came to what is now Paris in Bear 
Lake Valley. Idaho, and after wintering- there 



went across the lake to Montpelier, where he 
took up land, but only remained until fall. 
He wintered at Richmond, Utah, and in the 
spring of 1865 came to the site of the present 
town of Weston with six other families. They 
settled here, founded the town and began to 
put the land in condition for farming, and 
nearly all engaged also in raising stock. The 
next year they had considerable trouble with 
the Indians, who strove, but without success. 
to drive them out of the country. They stuck 
to their land and defended their homes, and in 
a few years were complete masters of the situ- 
ation. Mr. Maug-han was one of the most en- 
terprising men in pushing the development of 
this section and bringing it to its present state 
of advancement and prosperity. In the fall of 
1877 he was employed on the construction of 
the LTtah & Northern Railroad, then building, 
and remained in its service until its completion 
to Deer Lodge, Mont., then its terminus, and 
he helped to lay out the grounds for the station 
at that place. During the years of this em- 
ployment he worked on the road mainly in 
summer and remained at home looking after 
his own interests in the winter. Two winters 
his work on the road was in the neighborhood 
of Boulder and Jefferson, in the adjoining 
state, and then for two years he was employed 
on the Northern Pacific. During all of this 
time he was actively engaged in ranching at 
Weston, his family occupying and working the 
ranch. In 1891 he settled permanently on the 
ranch himself, and has since devoted his time 
and attention to conducting it. Prior to this, 
however, he and his sons did considerable work 
011 the Oregon Short Line Railroad, for the 
building of a part of which he had contracts. 
In 1805 he leased his farm to a tenant and re- 
tired from active business, taking up his resi- 
lience in the town of Weston, where he has a 
pleasant and well-appointed home. In March. 
[898, he was appointed postmaster of the town 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



539 



and has since been filling the office to the gen- 
eral satisfaction of the community. In church 
affairs he has been loyally and devotedly serv- 
iceable from his early manhood. From 1867 
to late in 1875 he served as bishop of the Wes- 
ton ward, and has since then continuously given 
the interests of the church close and helpful 
attention, doing efficient work for them in ev- 
ery line of usefulness. He has also been active 
and influential in public matters, serving two 
terms as justice of the peace and in other ways 
taking a leading part in promoting the welfare 
of the community. 

Mr. Maughan was married, on July 24, 
1853, at Tooele, Utah, to Miss Maria Daven- 
port, a native of Michigan, daughter of James 
and Almira (Phelps) Davenport, who were 
horn and reared in New York. They migrated 
from Michigan to Utah in 185 1, and in their 
new home the father followed farming and 
blacksmithing, living most of the time at 
Richmond, where they died. Mr. and Mrs. 
Maughan have had thirteen children. Sarah 
(Mrs. Crockett), Mary (Mrs. Norton), John, 
Harrison, William (died at the age of three), 
Ruth (Mrs. Griffin), Martha (Mrs. Hansen), 
Peter D., Hyrum (deceased), George, Andrus, 
Elsie and Margaret. Hyrum died on June 3, 
1898. at the age of twenty-six years, while on 
a mission to Indiana. The living sons are all 
prosperous farmers in the vicinity of Weston. 

ELISHA R. LAURENCE. 

A gallant soldier when the integrity of the 
Union was in danger and fighting valiantly in 
its defense, enduring the hardships of the 
march, the heat of the battle and the terrible 
sufferings of prison life, and bearing all with 
fortitude and manly courage, and an enter- 
prising man of productive industry when war 
smoothed its wrinkled front, boldly challeng- 
ing the frontier to oppose to his energy all its 



difficulties, Elisha R. Laurence, of Whitney, 
typifies in his character and career the best ele- 
ments of American citizenship, and is justly 
esteemed as one of the leading" men in his sec- 
tion of the country. He is a native of Mor- 
g'an count}', Ala., where he was born on Sep- 
tember 19, 1837, the son of Orson and Ara- 
bella (Allen) Laurence, natives of North Caro- 
lina. His father was a planter in Alabama and 
remained there until a short time before his 
death, when, on account of failing health, he 
went to make his home with a daughter in Ar- 
kansas, where he died in 1883. His wife died 
in Alabama some years before his removal 
from the state. Their son Elisha grew to man- 
hood and was educated in his native county, 
and in July, 1862, being opposed to disunion, 
he made his way through the Confederate lines 
and joined the Federal army at Huntsville, 
Ala., as a member of the First Alabama In- 
fantry, which was afterward changed into a 
cavalry regiment. It was assigned to the com- 
mand of General Buell and saw hard service 
under him. Mr. Laurence was captured a 
number of times and was confined in a number 
of Southern prisons. He rejoined his regi- 
ment after each exchange and with it was 
transferred to the Army of the Potomac under 
General Grant. In the concluding campaigns 
of that organization he took an active part. 
In July, 1865, he was mustered out of the serv- 
ice at Nashville. Tenn.. and returned to his 
Alabama home, where he engaged in farming 
until 1872. In 1869 he was baptized into the 
Mormon communion, and in the spring of 1872 
came to Utah. After a short residence at Og- 
den he came north to where Whitney now 
stands and settled 01; land two miles south of 
Preston, where there was only one other fam- 
ily, there being also but two at the site of 
Whitney. For four years he farmed his land, 
and in 1876 he sold it and homesteaded on the 
ranch he now occupies, which is in Whitney 



540 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



precinct and located three miles southeast of 
Preston. This has been his home since then 
and has furnished him abundant occupation in 
getting it into a state of advanced cultivation 
and as the base of his growing stock industry. 
He also owns another ranch a mile farther east. 
on which he conducts a nourishing farming 
and stock business : and thus, comfortable in 
worldly goods, he has been able to bring the 
influence of his progressive spirit and breadth 
of view into active play in the development 
and improvement of the region in which he 
lives, and has risen to a place of leadership in 
all elements of its public life. He is a stanch 
Republican in political faith and is deeply and 
earnestly interested in the success of his party, 
but steadfastly refuses all efforts to get him to 
accept public office. After establishing a wide 
reputation as one of the most successful and 
enterprising ranchmen of this section, he has 
determined to take a needed rest from active 
pursuits and has leased his properties with the 
view of passing some years in leisurely trav- 
eling through the South and noting the prog- 
ress of that section of the country. 

Mr. Laurence was married, in 1857. U1 
Blount county. Ala., to Miss Sarah Williford, 
and has three children as the fruit of the union. 
Orson. William and Mary. She died in 1865. 
and was buried in Morgan county. Ala., and 
in 1868 he married a second wife in Blount 
county, that state. Miss Mary Ann Ratliff. by 
whom also he had three children. Sarah. N. 
Abby and Caroline. The second Mrs. Lau- 
rence passed away in 1878 and was buried at 
Franklin. Idaho. Subsequentlv he contracted 
a third marriage, his choice this time being 
Miss Mary Jane Wall, also a native of Ala- 
bama. They have eleven children. Ruth, 
Elisha, Henry. Francis, Violet, Hartwell, Myr- 
tle, Orla. Vane. Uriel and Delva, all bright 
and interesting children and popular members 
of their social circles. 



SOREN J. PETERSOX. 

Descended from an old Danish line long 
established in Denmark and displaying in the 
daily walks and works of its members the most 
admired and useful traits of that vigorous and 
industrious people, Soren J. Peterson, of Pres- 
ton, has exemplified on .American soil the sal- 
ient characteristics which distinguished the 
family in the land of its nativity and long and 
serviceable residence. He was born in Den- 
mark on January 16. i860, the son of Baltzar 
and Margaret (Julsen) Peterson. His par- 
ents became converts to Mormonis'm in that 
country, and in 1863 emigrated to the United 
States, and after crossing the plains with ox 
teams and enduring with becoming fortitude 
and patience the hardships and dangers neces- 
sarily incident to the long and wearying jaunt, 
they settled at Richville in Morgan county. 
L'tah. and on a homestead which they took up 
from the government engaged in farming. 
That has ever since been the occupation of the 
father, and he is still pursuing it on the very 
farm which he redeemed from the waste and 
has been living on for forty years. He has 
ever taken an earnest and active interest in the 
public affairs of the community and has Ijeen 
zealous and influential in the benevolent work 
of his church. Leading thought and action in 
various lines of useful and productive energy, 
he is one of the representative and forceful men 
in his section of the state, and is generally rec- 
ognized and esteemed as such. 

His son. Soren J. Peterson, came to Rich- 
ville with his parents when he was but three 
years of age. and there grew to manhood and 
received his education. He worked with his 
father on the farm until 1877, and in the fall 
of that year he came to Preston and hauled the 
timber for a dwelling and other buildings on 
the land which is now his ranch and home, 
and which his father had taken up in the pre- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



541 



ceding spring. He returned to the parental 
homestead and passed the winter, and in the 
spring of 1878 he, being about eighteen years 
old, returned to Preston and began to clear 
the land and prepare it for farming. When he 
became of age his father deeded the land to 
him and he has made his home on it ever since, 
devoting his energies and his knowledge and 
skill to its development and improvement until 
he has made it into an excellent stock farm 
and is able to conduct on it a profitable indus- 
try in raising stock and general farming. This 
ranch, through his labors and continued appli- 
cation of excellent judgment and good taste, 
has been transformed into a rural home, beau- 
tiful with the bounty of nature, trained by the 
hand of art and enriched with many of the de- 
sirable attendants of civilized life and enter- 
prise. His dwelling is modern in character and 
equipment, and all that he has about him is 
suggestive of progress, enterprise, advanced 
ideas and lofty aspirations in agricultural life. 
In Salt Lake City, Mr. Peterson was united 
in marriage with Miss Louisa Spongberg, a 
native of this state and daughter of Oiarles J. 
and Jacobina (Funk) Spongberg, of Preston, 
a sketch of whom will be found on another page 
of this work. Eight children have sanctified 
the domestic altar they thus erected, seven of 
whom are living, C. Joseph, Zulena, M. Bna, 
Alvena, Soren Thomas, Hattie and Orlando. 
Another son, Clyde, died on May 7, 1902. 

JAMES CHADWICK. 

James Chadwick, of Preston, one of the 
leading farmers and representative men of 
Oneida county, Idaho, is a native of Lanca- 
shire, England, where he was born on June 
23, 1842, the son of Joseph and Mary (White- 
head) Chadwick, of the same nativity as him- 
self. The parents became converts to Mormon- 
ism late in the forties, and in 1850 they emi- 



grated to the United States, first settling at 
Pottsville, Pa. In 1853 the father left his 
family there and went to California to seek a 
better fortune. For five years he mined and 
prospected in that state, and in 1858 came to 
Utah, where he had the family join him two 
years later, they crossing the plains in i860 
when James was about eighteen years old. On 
their arrival in the Mormon territory they set- 
tled at Slatersville, in Weber county, where 
they engaged in farming. James had been edu- 
cated in Pennsylvania and after his arrival in 
Utah he worked on the farm with his father 
until 1862. He then moved to Franklin, 
Idaho, and was among the first settlers in the 
neighborhood of that town. The land was 
wild and unproductive; ferocious beasts of 
prey and hostile Indians were plentiful and 
obstinate ; and all the conditions of life were 
hard and inhospitable. But, like others, he 
persevered in his laudable attempt to build a 
home in the wilderness and, taking up land near 
the site of the present town, he occupied him- 
self busily in getting it into condition for pro- 
ductiveness and habitation. In 1864 he was 
sent on a church mission to the Missouri River 
with Bishop Preston to bring out a party of 
emigrants. After his return he continued 
farming in that locality until 1875, when he 
removed to Whitney, where he again took up 
new land and went to farming. AVhen the 
railroad was built to Preston the company 
bought the right of way through his place, in- 
creasing its value and bringing it into closer 
touch with the markets. He was also engaged 
in raising stock, and was one of the prosperous 
and leading men of the community. In 1895 
he came to Preston and, purchasing ground, 
built the residence which is now his widow's 
home. It is a large and well-built two-story 
stone house, well-finished and completely fur- 
nished, and is one of the principal private 
dwellings of the town. He retained his farm 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR L.IKE, 



at Whitney, but turned its management over 
to his son Clarence, who is still conducting it. 
Mr. Chadwick made his home at Preston until 
his death, on March 5, 1899. His remains 
were buried in the family burying ground at 
Franklin. He was active in business in a mer- 
cantile way as well as in his chosen occupations 
of farming and raising stock. He was a heavy 
stockholder in the Cooperative store at Frank- 
lin, and also conducted a store of his own at 
Whitney. In church matters he was ever zeal- 
ous and diligent, faithful to the last extremity 
and very effective as a worker. He was pre- 
siding elder at Whitney until it became a ward 
and then he was made bishop of the ward and 
served it in that capacity for a number of years. 
He was also a member of the stake high coun- 
cil with President Parkinson, and a member 
of the state board of education at the time of 
his death. Tn all life's varied duties he was 
upright and faithful, and in all circles in the 
community he was influential and highly re- 
spected. Mr. Chadwick was married, on Janu- 
ary 20, 1866, at Salt Lake City, to Miss Mary 
C. Caudland, who was born at what is now 
Florence. Wyo., on the Missouri River, while 
her parents were on the way to Utah, this be- 
ing a stopping or resting place at the time for 
emigrants. They made the trip in 1852 and 
remained at Salt Lake until the spring of i860, 
when they moved to Sanpete county, where the 
father engaged in mercantile pursuits and took 
an active part in public affairs. He was the 
first internal revenue collector of that district 
and also its district judge. He remained there 
until his death, in March. 1902. His wife 
died at Salt Lake in 1858. Since Mr. Chad- 
wick's death his widow has made her home at 
the family residence in Preston. Their family 
consisted of nine children : James D.. who 
died on September 14. 1886. aged nineteen 
years and five months; S. Clarence, who lives 
at Preston ami has charge of the farm at Whit- 



ney; Joseph V. who died in June. 1892. aged 
twenty-one years and eight months: Amy F., 
wife of a Mr. Ballif ; Leo S.. who died in June. 
1873, aged three months; Mary X.. who died 
on March 21, 1879. aged three years and six 
months; Arthur C. who makes his home with 
his mother; Edna L., who died on August 24. 
1889. aged three years and six months, and 
Ruby A., who is living at home. 

ALFRED W. STEPHENS. 

From the mines and machine shops of 
southern Wales to the fertile fields and wide 
cattle ranges of southern Idaho seems a long 
leap in distance and covers many longitudes 
and a great variety of scenes and products, 
peoples and pursuits in its sweep ; but in this 
electric age, when the Orient and the Occident 
are near neighbors and continents shake hands 
across the stormy ocean, distance is nothing 
and variety in scene and exerience is the com- 
mon lot of man. To the aspiring spirit all ob- 
stacles yield, all difficulties bow, all dangers are 
disarmed. And when time and space are prac- 
tically removed as elements of the case no un- 
dertaking seems impossible or even of magni- 
tude. And so Alfred W. Stephens, comfort- 
ably settled on his fine ranch and well estab- 
lished in public esteem amid the fruitful fields 
and progressive activities of his Oneida county 
home, not far from the town of Preston, can 
look back over the long leagues of earth and 
ocean lying between this and the place of his 
birth and the varied experiences through which 
he came hither as only little incidents in the 
voyage of life, although to his childish fancy 
they \\ ould have seemed prodigious in extent 
and mighty in importance. He was born mi 
March 25, 1850. in the southern part of Wales, 
the son of John and Emma (James) Stephens, 
natives. of that part of the world. His father 
was a machinist employed in extensive iron 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



543 



works there and died in 1868. Just before his 
death he and his wife became converts to the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, and in the 
first year of her widowhood the mother brought 
her three children to the United States and lo- 
cated at Wilkesbarre, Pa. There her son Al- 
fred reached man's estate, attending the schools 
of the city and working in the coal mines until 
1879. He then came to Utah and located first 
in Willard, where he remained about six 
months. This section of the state was just 
then opening to settlement, and he did not 
find it promising enough to enlist his interest 
as a- permanent home, so he moved to what is 
now the flourishing little town of Preston, but 
which was at that time, the fall of 1879, only 
a few rude log shacks. He was, however, 
much pleased with the outlook and induced his 
brother John to come out here from Pennsyl- 
vania to live also. Together they took up land, 
on a part of which Alfred yet lives, and engaged 
in farming for a number of years. John then 
entered the employ of the Oregon Short Line 
Railroad, with which he is still connected, al- 
though making his home at Preston, and Al- 
bert continued his farming operations alone. 
He has given his business close and skillful 
attention, and has transformed his wild ranch 
into a thing of beauty and productiveness, ad- 
vancing with the improvement of the neighbor- 
hood and keeping pace with the march of prog- 
ress. He has taken an active and helpful part 
in public affairs and has risen to a position of 
leadership among the people, exhibiting a spirit 
of enteqarise with reference to the welfare of 
the community, but not seeking any place of 
honor or prominence for himself. He is a Re- 
publican in politics, but not an office seeker 
or bitter partisan. 

On October 16, 1879, at Salt Lake City, 
Utah, Mr. Stephens was married to Miss Mary 
A. Taylor, a native of England. They had 
eight children, all of whom are living, Emma, 



Ada, Alfred W., Etna, Mary A., Florence M., 
Jessie J. and Vera M. Their mother died on 
December 14, 1896, and on January 29, 1902, 
the father married his second wife. Miss Mar- 
garet Geddes, a native of Utah and daughter 
of William and Martha Geddes, and a sister 
of Bishop Geddes of this stake. Mr. Stephens' 
mother also has her home near Preston. 

THOMAS DANIELS. 

For more than thirty-eight years a resident 
of Idaho, living on a ranch at Malad City which 
he took up in 1865, and which has now an 
extensive frontage on the main street of the 
town, and which he has redeemed from the 
waste of wild sagebrush and brought to a high 
state of cultivation, Thomas Daniels has been 
one of the developers and builders of this sec- 
tion of the state and is entitled to high credit 
for his work in this behalf. He is a native of 
Wales, where he was born on January 18, 183-1, 
the son of Daniel and Mary Daniels, also na- 
tives of that country, where they were reared, 
educated and married, and where they adopted 
the Mormon faith in the forties. In 1849 they 
with their family joined a tide of emigration 
to this country, and, on their arrival at Salt 
Lake City, took an active part in the life and 
activity of the town. In 1852 the father was 
sent on a mission for the church to his native 
land, where he remained six years zealously 
engaged in church work. On his return to 
Utah he took up land near Ogden and farmed 
it for a number of years. In 1866 he moved to 
Malad City, where his son Thomas had al- 
ready settled, and, taking up land near the 
town, again engaged in farming, continuing 
his operations in this line" until his death in 
1882, having survived for four years his wife, 
who died in 1878. After the family settled at 
Salt Lake Thomas Daniels worked on the farm 
with his father until 1852. At that time he 



544 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



was married and in the spring of 1853 went to 
Brigham City, where he homesteaded and en- 
gaged in farming, remaining there until the 
spring of 1865. He then came to the part of 
Idaho in which he now lives and was one of 
the first settlers to locate here. He is the only 
man of those first settlers now living except 
William Jones. He owns and lives on the 
ranch he took up at the time of his arrival, and 
by his o\\ n energy and skill has brought it to 
its present state of development and produc- 
tiveness. It was all sagebrush land when he 
settled on it, and it is now one of the best and 
most highly improved farms in the neighbor- 
hood of Malad City, having additional value 
because of its connection with the town, on 
whose principal street it fronts for a consider- 
able distance. The development of the whole 
section is due to the indorhitable energy and 
skillful industry for which the Mormon people 
are renowned, which dares everything, attempts 
everything, endures everything and -conquers 
everything in the way of difficulty, danger and 
toil. 

Mr. Daniels has ever been a true and loyal 
citizen of the land of his adoption, and has 
taken an active and helpful interest in all mat- 
ters affecting the general welfare of the com- 
munity in which he lives. He is a Democrat 
in political faith, and is earnest and useful in 
the service of his party. He has been engaged 
in farming and raising stock since locating 
here until a few years ago when he retired 
from active pursuits, and has been recognized 
as a leading citizen, serving the county faith- 
fully as county commissioner for a number of 
years. Besides fronting on the main street of 
Malad City, his land extends some distance 
along the old stage road from Salt Lake City 
to Virginia City and Helena. Mont. 

On May 20, 1852. at Salt Lake, Mr. Dan- 
iels was married to Miss Mary Davis, and they 
became the parents of seven children, six of 



whom are living. Jane. Thomas. Daniel. Sarah. 
David and John. The mother died on April 
10. 1866, and on December 18, 1866. the sub- 
ject married his second wife. Miss Jennie 
Thomas, by whom he has had eight children, 
of whom five are living, Jennie, Elva. Henry, 
George and Annie. Catherine, Dora and Theo- 
dore are dead. All the living children are mar- 
ried and settled in life. 

GEORGE A. BROWNING. 

When the enterprising and public-spirited 
gentleman whose name stands as the caption 
of this article first made his home in the region 
which is now Fremont county. Idaho, the 
county was just being opened up to civilization 
and the honored pioneers of the district who 
had found homes for their families in this rich, 
undeveloped but waterless land were men who 
had to contend with all of the hardships and 
deprivations of frontier life, alone excepting 
the fear of hostile Indian raids. -Their lives 
were lives of toil, but from them have already 
been wrought almost magical changes, and it 
is pleasant to note that many who came here 
empty-handed have worked their way upward 
to positions of affluence and that as the years 
have passed and the country has improved, 
prosperity has come to them in all ways and 
their earnest endeavors have been rewarded by 
a well-deserved competency. 

George A. Browning was born on June 27. 
1865, at Ogden, Utah, one of the sons of James 
G. and Ann (Wood) Browning, and for the 
record of his parents the reader may consult 
the sketch of James G. Browning, the older 
brother of the subject of this review, appear- 
ing on other pages of this compilation. Until 
he was eighteen years of age Mr. Browning 
loyally aided in the support of his parental 
home, fitting himself by actual labor for the 
prosecution of farming, which life he com- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



545 



menced for himself at the age of eighteen 
years, when he was twenty-one years old mak- 
ing use of his homestead right on a tract of 
land which he relinquished six months later 
and, homesteading his present property near 
Annis, Fremont county, Idaho, in 1890. He 
has since made this place his home, through 
his unwearied industry and well-planned en- 
deavors bringing the at-that-time desert waste 
into well-watered and fertile fields, which boun- 
teously respond to his skillful culture, having 
made valuable improvements thereon, and 
erecting commodious and suitable buildings, 
corrals, barns, etc., for the proper carrying on 
of the farming and stockraising departments 
of husbandry which here have their base of 
operations. 

He has largely given of his time and means 
to the various artificial highways, ditches and 
canals, which bring the ever-ready supply of 
water to the fields of the farmers in their time 
of need, having assisted in building the first 
canal on the island, the Island Canal and Irri- 
gation Co.'s property, in which corporation he 
has very competently served as director, water- 
master, secretary and president. He is ever 
ready to respond to all demands on his services 
for the benefit of the people at large, winning 
popular approval also by his wise and judicious 
administration of the office of justice of the 
peace, to which he was appointed on the organi- 
zation of Fremont county and which he held 
for two years. In the political field his coun- 
sels and services are ever ready to aid in the 
advancement of the principles for Which he is 
battling, while in the Church of Latter Day 
Saints he has been called to the administration 
of important functions, being ordained as elder 
at La Belle in 189 1, and in 1900 being set 
apart as the presiding elder of the Annis 
branch of the Menan ward. 

The marriage of Mr. Browning and Miss 
Emma C. Matson took place on November 4, 



1891, her birth occurring on October 5, 1870. 
Mrs. Browning is an able assistant to the well- 
formed plans of her husband and, like him, she 
is accomplishing great good in the circles of 
the church, winning many commendations for 
the consistent and conscientious discharge of 
the many duties there devolving on her, hav- 
ing held for three years the presidency of the 
primary association and in other offices and 
ways performing appreciated service. Five 
children have come to cheer and bless the home 
of Mr. and Mrs. Browning, namely : George 
A., born September 27, 1892; Esther S., born 
December 17, 1894; Ruth M., born November 
18, 1896; Glenn W., born February 9, 1899; 
Golden M., born November 10, 1901. 

THOMAS E. RICKS. 

No name has been of greater importance 
in the settlement of the intermountain portion 
of the Great West than that borne by the sub- 
ject of this review, for it was the name of his 
honored father, than whom no greater man 
ever took part in the colonization movements 
of the Mormon church, and for a full account 
of his useful career the reader will refer to his 
memoir published on other pages of this vol- 
ume. The good work commenced by the fa- 
ther is being carried on in this generation by 
his able sons, and the one of whom we now 
write, Thomas E. Ricks, the oldest son of his 
parents, has been prominently concerned with 
nearly every phase of the development of the 
Upper Snake River Valley, from its incipiency 
in 1883 to the present time. 

Mr. Ricks was born in Farming-ton, Utah, 
on December 3, 1855, a son of Thomas E. and 
Tabitha (Hendricks) Ricks. Under the capa- 
ble supervision of his father he early became 
well qualified to successfully conduct all kinds 
of practical business necessary to carry on the 
development of the country in this great agri- 



54" 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



cultural and stockraising section. At the age 
of twenty-five years he became connected with 
railroad construction, with which he was identi- 
fied for four years, at the same time conduct- 
ing agricultural operations of scope and impor- 
tance. In 1883 he made his permanent home 
near Rexburg. Fremont county, Idaho, locat- 
ing at first on a homestead of 160 acres of 
land, to which he has since added another tract 
of the same area, and his untiring efforts and 
vigorous endeavors have entirely changed the 
appearance of his estate. The waterless plain, 
with its solitary growth of sagebrush, has been 
brought into civilized productiveness and large 
crops of grain, alfalfa and other grasses are 
annually produced, the fertile soil responding 
quickly to the hand of culture after the intro- 
duction of water, and in this direction Mr. 
Ricks was a pioneer of pioneers, coming here 
in 1883 to assist in the construction of the first 
irrigation canals, and ever since has been ac- 
tivelv connected with this important element 
of success in farming, holding the position of 
watermaster of the Rexburg Canal for a series 
of years. 

Ever a progressive and thoughtful observer 
of affairs. Mr. Ricks has steadfastly allied him- 
self in politics with the Democratic party, and 
in the council of this organization he holds an 
honored place from his broad comprehension 
of the political status, his sagacity in devising 
methods of procedure, and his knowledge of all 
details necessary for successful campaigning. 

In the religious denomination of which he 
is a member his abilities are highly appreci- 
ated and he has held all of the minor offices of 
the local organization. From 1888 to 1890 he 
was successfully engaged in mission work in 
England, and since 1884 he has been the highly 
cherished bishop of Rexburg ward. Fremont 
stake, his qualities of head and heart most ably 
qualifying him for this exalted office. 

On Octoljer 1 1. 1878, occurred the cere- 



mony uniting Mr. Ricks and Miss Mary Hib- 
bard in the bonds of matrimony, she being a 
daughter of George and Hannah (Williams) 
Hibbard, natives respectively 1 A England and 
Wales, who, coming to Utah in early life, there 
met and were married at Salt Lake City, where 
he worked at his trade of shoemaking for four 
years, then removing to Farmington, he 
tinued to labor in the same line until he moved 
to Logan, Utah. There on his homestead of 
160 acres he was engaged in farming and stock- 
raising for a short term of vears, thereafter 
selling his propertv and making his home at 
Rexburg. where his death occurred in 189 1. at 
the age of sixty-eight years, the mother dying 
at Logan in 1878. when fifty-nine years old. 

The children of Bishop and Mrs. Ricks 
are: Silas S. died on March 1, 1902. at the 
age of twenty-two years: Thomas E.. Foretta, 
Joel and Preston. The family distinctively be- 
longs to the leading circle of the Snake River 
Valley and exercises a wholesome and domin- 
ating influence in social matters and events, a 
kindness of heart and a winning cordiality be- 
ing conspicuous elements of the home life. 

JOSEPH S. RUDD. 

That element of the population of the West- 
ern states which has lieen the advance .guard of 
civilization in this section of the country is 
composed of varying nationalities as well as 
of people native to the soil of America: every- 
where they have been found to he brave, reso- 
lute men. full of resources, with great powers 
of endurance, keen observation, as alert and 
active as the Indians who for centuries had 
roamed over the various mountains and plains 
from which the forces of civilization led by 
this advance guard of pioneers has driven them 
utterly away never more to return. And not 
the least of that element which constituted this 
heroic band of pioneers are the sons of pioneers. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



547 



who, born of pioneer parents, reared in the 
pioneer home and battling from childhood with 
the hardships and deprivations of a pioneer 
existence, have developed qualities which ren- 
der them peculiarly fitted for opening up new 
lines of activity and creating civilized homes 
where has been until their advent an unproduc- 
tive wilderness. It is of one of these virile sons 
of a pioneer home that we must write when we 
essay a review of Joseph S. Rudd, now a prom- 
inent farmer and stockman on a finely situ- 
ated and highly improved ranch of 160 acres, 
lying adjacent to the stirring town of Parker, 
which is his postoffice address. 

Mr. Rudd was born on September 22, i860, 
at Farmington, Davis county, Utah, a son of 
Erastus and Elizabeth (Walker) Rudd. The 
father, who attained manhood in his native 
state of Ohio, came to Utah as a member of a 
Mormon ox-team battalion of 1850, on the 
journey thither having a severe attack of chol- 
era, but recovering therefrom and reaching his 
destination in safety. He located at Farm- 
ington, where he followed the dual occupations 
of farming and mechanics and also holding the 
office of high priest in the Mormon church at 
the time of his death, in 1862, when he had 
attained the age of forty-four years. His mar- 
riage to Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Cas- 
sius and Elizabeth (Metcalf) Walker, was cele- 
brated in Utah, where she is still residing at 
Farmington at the ag"e of seventy-one years, 
and of her family of children all seven are now 
living. Her journey to Utah was accomplished 
in 1857 by crossing the plains with a handcart 
company with her mother, coming to this new 
Mormon settlement that they might enjoy the 
unrestricted privileges of their church associa- 
tions. Enduring many privations on the way, 
they located at Salt Lake City, where she was 
married, after her husband's death forming 
another marriage with a merchant of Farm- 
ington named Fredrick Coombs. 

31— 



Joseph S. Rudd attained the age of nine- 
teen years at Farmington, Utah, his busy 
hands finding employment at various occupa- 
tions and his receptive mind availing itself of 
the educational advantages of the excellent 
schools of that intelligent place. Thereafter 
he undertook to conduct stockraising for a 
year, then pursuing various occupations until 
1883, when, coming to that portion of Bing- 
ham county later segregated to form Fremont 
county, he became one of the earliest pioneer 
settlers of the section of his present residence, 
pitching his tent on his homestead of 160 acres 
when the sagebrush growth showed no mark 
of fertility. No doubt an English farmer would 
have called it an unproductive desert, and from 
that time to the present his energy has been ever 
in evidence in the development, growth and 
prosperity of not only his land but of the entire 
section, taking a leading part in bringing wa- 
ter to this portion of the county, being the di- 
rector of the Last Chance Irrigation Canal Co. 
for several years, and in the pursuit of this vital 
necessity, aiding in constructing every irriga- 
tion canal that has been built in that vicinage. 
In all the relations of life Mr. Rudd has well 
performed his duty, in temporal and spiritual 
matters being a public-spirited citizen and an 
earnest advocate of everything appertaining to 
the weal of the community as a capable man 
of affairs and business. He has had the gov- 
ernment mail contract for the past five years 
and is still under contract. He is known as a 
kind husband and father and a sterling friend 
of great integrity, and in the Mormon church 
he is holding the position of one of the Sev- 
enties. He is entitled to great credit for the 
tangible results which have followed his well- 
conceived plans and industrious labors. Previ- 
ous to making- his home in this section of Idaho, 
Mr. Rudd must needs provide himself with the 
leading factor of a home and, on December 6, 
1883, he did this by his marriage with Miss 



548 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Vilate Lucas, who was born in England, ac- 
companying her parents. James and Harriet 
(Leeson) Lucas, to Utah in 1871, thereafter 
settling in Centerville. There her parents en- 
gaged in farming and gardening until 1886, 
when they became residents of Piano, Fremont 
county, Idaho, where they passed the remain- 
der of their days, the mother passing to her 
eternal reward, at the age of sixty-eight years, 
in 1893. the father dying in 1894, having at- 
tained the same age as did his wife. Mr. and 
Mrs. Rudd are the parents of ten children, 
namely: Erastus, Joseph H., George, Elizabeth, 
Ira, Alma, Melvin, Alta. Linford and Ida, and 
they as well as their honored parents occupy a 
definite place in the social circles of the com- 
munity. 

GIDEON WINEGAR. 

Among the younger men who are grappling 
with the industries connected with the prosper- 
ities of the youthful, but vigorous state of 
Idaho, from unformed and undeveloped condi- 
tions assisting in the development of that sec- 
tion of the commonwealth wherein his lot is 
cast, Gideon Winegar is well performing his 
task, and while pursuing his way to a material 
personal prosperity he is aiding in the grand 
total of the endeavors that are steadily advanc- 
ing the great interests and the financial condi- 
tion of the state. He was born on January 31, 
1857, in Salt Lake county. Utah, the son of 
Stephen and Lois (Smith) Winegar, and for his 
ancestral record the reader is referred to the 
review of the life and career of his honored fa- 
ther, which appears at length on other pages 
of this volume. 

Until he had attained the age of twenty-five 
years Mr. Winegar remained under the shel- 
ter of the parental roof, industriously occu- 
pied in the multifarious duties attaching to the 
diversified interests of his father, thereafter 
coming, in 1879, to the locality of the present 



city of Parker. He was one of the earliest of 
the pioneers who have wrought so excellently 
in the grand work of reclaiming the desert re- 
gions and changing them into a fertile coun- 
try to become at no far-distant day of the 
future a thickly settled region where thousands 
of happy people will rest under the shadow of 
their own vines and figtrees. Here he located 
a homestead and has continued to reside. In 
1895 he married Miss Man,' Helen Mason, a 
native of Utah and a daughter of James H. 
and Pamela (Bullock) Mason. From the first 
he was active in all matters and plans that 
promised to benefit the people or the land, hav- 
ing been prominently concerned in the con- 
struction and operation of the earliest irriga- 
tion canal to be completed and operated in his 
vicinity and holding the dual office of director 
and foreman of the Egin Irrigation Co. Mr. 
Winegar was the first appointed constable in 
this section of country, but did not accept the 
office. 

In all the relations of life Mr. Winegar 
is ever found true to manly principle, proving 
himself not only a citizen of public spirit and 
generosity, but a loyal friend, a wise counsel- 
lor and a sagacious and energetic man of af- 
fairs. In the Mormon church, to which the 
family belongs, Mr. Winegar is held in high 
esteem. In political creed he is an ardent sup- 
porter of the principles and policies maintained 
by the Democratic political party, in whose 
cause he manifests his accustomed untiring en- 
ergy. The children of Air. and Mrs. Winegar 
are Thomas O.. Jean. Frank G, Helen M. and 
Stephen J. 

E. M. CHASE. 

A pioneer settler in the thriving town of 
Wilford, Fremont county. Idaho, must neces- 
sarily and for all time be a man of interest to 
succeeding generations, as. with his associates 
who accompanied him to this pleasant loca- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



549 



tion he has laid strong and deep the founda- 
tion of an intelligent, thrifty and deeply reli- 
gious community, replacing the wild solitude 
of its previous existence by the cheerful 
sounds, activities and operations of a highly 
developed civilization. This honorable distinc- 
tion must be conferred upon E. M. Chase, a 
representative farmer and stockman, whose 
home and center of business activities is lo- 
cated on his ranch of 160 acres, situated two 
miles east of the postoffice of Wilford. He 
was born on July 20, 186 1, at Ogden, Utah, 
and was a son of Elisha W. and Jane (Mc- 
Garry) Chase, the father being a native of 
Rochester, N. Y., and a son of Ezra Chase, 
also a native of that place. His paternal an- 
cestry, however, traces back to that New Eng- 
land family which has numbered among its 
representatives some of the leading men of the 
nation, its first English emigrants locating 
early in the Seventeenth Century in the Massa- 
chusetts and New Hampshire colonies. The 
mother was a daughter of Charles and Char- 
lotte Erie, who were natives of Canada, where 
she also was born. Ezra Chase married Te- 
ressa Wells, who came to Utah with her hus- 
band in a very early period, settling at Ogden as 
one of the pioneer settlers and there followed 
agricultural operations until their deaths. The 
father of Mr. Chase, of this review, accom- 
panied a Mormon battalion to Utah prior to 
1850 and, locating at Ogden, he there en- 
gaged in farming, and he is still residing at 
his original home, hale and hearty at the age 
of seventy-three years, being held in distinct 
reverence as one of the well-preserved pioneer 
residents of that place. 

The maternal grandparents of Mr. Chase 
came from Canada at a very early day to 
Utah, and also located at Ogden, where the 
grandfather followed the trade of blacksmith- 
ing until his death, and where the grandmother 
is still living, having attained the patriarchal 



age of eighty-four years. The mother of Mr. 
Chase is still living at Ogden, having attained 
the age of sixty-four years, and being the 
mother of sixteen children. 

After a childhood and youth passed amid 
the primitive scenes of Utah's agricultural op- 
erations, Mr. Chase, at the age of twenty-two 
years, in 1883, became a resident of Idaho, 
coming to the site of Wilford and, after care- 
ful observation and having the whole county 
to select from, he took up a homestead of 160 
acres, where he has, by diligent care, uninter- 
mitting attention and the display of excellent 
judgment and shrewd common-sense, devel- 
oped into a pleasant home and a most highly 
productive ranch. He also engaged in profit- 
able stockraising, making his ranch the center 
of activity in this department. In local mat- 
ters of a public interest he has ever been deeply 
interested, and in the matter of irrigation he 
has played a most conspicuous part. In poli- 
tics he is identified with the Republican party, 
but has no desire for officeseeking or the cares 
and perplexities of public life. 

Mr. Chase was married on March 21, 1879, 
to Miss Minnie Crawford, who was a native 
of California and a daughter of Lee and Cath- 
arine (Clark) Crawford. The mother, who 
was born in Illinois and married in Utah, died 
at Ogden, that state, in 1900, at sixty-two 
years, she being a daughter of Isaac and Mary 
(Timmons) Clark, natives of Kentucky, but 
whose lives were mostly passed in Utah, where 
Mr. Clark attained local prominence in his 
church as the first bishop of Ogden. Lee Craw- 
ford was a native of the state of Georgia, but 
his life was mostly passed in California. Mr. 
and Mrs. Chase are the parents of two win- 
some children, Herbert E. and Winifred C. 
To Mr. Chase is due that tribute of respect 
and admiration which should ever be given to 
those men who have worked their way up- 
wards to an assured position of financial stand- 



55° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ing and business integrity through their own 
efforts, and by their honorable and straight- 
forward dealing have commanded the esteem 
and confidence of the public, for he is public- 
spirited to an eminent degree and has been 
an important factor in the history of the 
county. 

LEMUEL J. RICE. 

Elsewhere in this volume, in connection 
with the sketch of an older brother of Mr. Rice, 
will be found extended notice of the ancestral 
history of the Rice family and extended re- 
views of his parents, Leonard G. and Elizabeth 
(Babbett) Rice, and in this connection justice 
to the character of this compilation demands 
that we record a synoptical account of the life 
and career of the estimable gentleman whose 
name heads this review. He has been largely 
interested in private business, public office and 
church relations, holding an advanced place in 
the esteem of the people, not only of the en- 
tire county of his residence but of a much 
wider area, being at all times a man of activ- 
ity and energy, with modern thought and ideas, 
possessing a broad fund of knowledge and a 
genial disposition which makes him a most de- 
lightful companion. He has ever contributed 
generously, and believes it the duty of every 
good citizen so to do, towards the maintenance 
of law and order and the upbuilding and devel- 
opment of moral and religious institutions and 
also those which foster a true spirit of Ameri- 
canism. 

Mr. Rice was born on November 30, 1855, 
at Farmington, Utah, and under the capable 
supervision and tutelage of his parents he 
early became qualified to conduct business af- 
fairs with capability and sagacity. At the age 
of eighteen years he commenced the activities 
of life by conducting freighting between vari- 
ous Utah and Nevada points, and later extend- 
ing the scope of his operations to include the 



important mountain camps and cities of Mon- 
tana. Upon the coming of the railroads into 
this section he ceased his freighting operations 
and was connected with railroad construction 
for a period of about twelve years. This pe- 
riod included freighting and railroad work, 
which extended into Canada, where he was 
also engaged in hauling supplies for the Ca- 
nadian government at the time of the Riel re- 
bellion. In 1886 he came to Fremont county, 
then in its incipient stages of development, 
and homesteading 160 acres, he engaged in 
extensive operations in fanning and cattlerais- 
ing, adding to his original ranch 160 acres by 
purchase. His homestead and productive 
property demonstrates what personal hard la- 
bor and industry will accomplish in trans- 
forming the unpromising portions of the coun- 
try into farms of beauty and lands of fertility, 
for on his ranch he raises as bounteous crops 
of the best quality of grain as can be met with 
in many a mile of distance, it being an object 
lesson of Idaho capabilities in this department 
of her husbandry. The political belief of Mr. 
Rice is that the government, local and federal, 
should be administered for the people and not 
for classes or trusts, and his earnest energies 
have been directed toward the advancement of 
Democratic principles, and he has been the 
standard bearer of his party since, when as a 
minority party, it made its record at the polls 
of the county. At that time he was placed in 
nomination for county commissioner and re- 
ceived a handsome vote, but, as a logical result 
of the political situation, not receiving an elec- 
tion. For six years he was a popular post- 
master of Parker, and his personal popularity 
has brought him many friends throughout all 
this section of the land; while in the Mormon 
church, of which he is a valued member, he 
holds the office of elder. 

On March 18. 1877. Mr. Rice married with 
Miss Julia Jenkins, a daughter of Evan and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



55i 



Ann (Davis) Jenkins, and of their ten chil- 
dren the following six are living-: Clem, Al- 
lie, Stella, Ethelyn, Raleigh and Lillia; while 
Grace, Lemuel, Lester and another are de- 
ceased. Mr. Rice has long been recognized as 
an important factor in the community, being 
a man of progressive methods, of diligence and 
sound judgment, thoroughly American in 
thought and feeling and the family stands 
high throughout this entire section of the 
country. 

THOMAS E. SMITH. 

Pleasantly located on his attractive and 
productive ranch, which is situated two and 
one-half miles south of St. Anthony, Fremont 
county, Idaho, where his diligent labors and 
persistent industries have developed the prop- 
erty from which he has secured an ample com- 
petency, Thomas E. Smith is one of that he- 
roic band of pioneers which has acted well its 
part in transforming the wilderness region of 
this section into a civilized community, pos- 
sessing all the comforts and many of the lux- 
uries of a 'highly civilized community. He was 
born on June 26, 1850, at Farmington, Utah, 
being a son of Thomas S. and Polly (Clark) 
Smith, and for the record of his father's life 
and activities the reader is referred ' to, the 
sketch of F. Smith Skates, the half-brother of 
the subject, on other pages of this volume. 
Mrs. Polly (Clark) Smith was born, reared 
educated and married in one of the Eastern 
states of the Union, coming thereafter with her 
husband in 1848 and locating at Farmington, 
where they remained diligently occupied in the 
cultivation of the soil until the mother's death, 
in 1870, at the age of fifty years. Of her seven 
children, Thomas E. was the fifth child and 
the third oldest now living. Mr. Smith passed 
his early years in diligent labor on the home 
farm at Farmington, giving due attention, 
however, to attendance at the public schools 



of the vicinity. He located on his present 
ranch at Wilford, Idaho 1 , in 1884, where he 
homesteaded 160 acres of finely situated land, 
and from that time he has been identified with 
general farming and cattleraising, being one 
of the first settlers and one of the earliest ad- 
vocates and assistants in developing the splen- 
did irrigation system of this section, holding 
the position of director in the Twin Grove Irri- 
gation Canal Co. He has seen the marvelous 
growth and development of this country, in 
which he has done more than an ordinary part. 
He is a Democrat of the old Andrew Jackson 
type, believing that its principles and policies 
are identified with the interests of the Ameri- 
can people and laboring loyally in its cause. 
In the Mormon church, of which he is a most 
consistent member, he has held with distinct 
ability the place of elder. 

On November 1-3, 1869, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Smith with Miss Elizabeth Udy, 
also a native of Farmington, Utah, and a 
daughter of James and Isabelle (Cowley) Udy, 
the father being an Englishman and the 
mother a native of the Isle of Man. Their 
marriage occurred soon after their arrival in 
the United States and previous to their cross- 
ing the plains in the long pilgrimage to Utah, 
where the)'' settled in Davis county as pioneers. 
The mother passed away on December 6, 1893, 
at the age of sixty-two years, while the father 
is still residing at Farmington, at the venerable 
age of eighty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
have had a family of nine children, namely: 
Alice B.. Thomas E., Polly I., Estella, James, 
deceased ; Lorah, who married George E. 
Bates and is now deceased ; Jesse, deceased, 
Matthias and Loretta. After an industrious 
and exemplary life of diligent attention to civil 
and religious duties Mr. Smith finds himself 
in the enjoyment of a comfortable home and 
an ample competency, maintaining the same 
cheerful spirit which has ever cast a ray of 



552 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



sunshine along his pathway, and after gener- 
ations will regard him not only as a kind fa- 
ther, an upright man and citizen, but as a 
truly consistent man of deep religious princi- 
ples. 

NELSON RUSS. 

Prominently identified with the agricul- 
tural interests of his section of the state of 
Idaho, industry and perseverance being among 
his marked characteristics, Nelson Russ, a rep- 
resentative citizen of Fremont county, is main- 
taining his home on his productive ranch, sit- 
uated two miles east of the thriving town of 
Wilford. Mr. Russ was born on March 14, 
1848, in Genesee county, N. Y., a son of John 
and Abby (Kinyon) Russ, bis father being a 
native of the same state, where be passed his 
life until advanced in years, thence removing 
to Michigan, where he died in the town of Mon- 
terey. His wife passed into eternal life on 
March 1. 185 1. in Genesee county. N. Y.. leav- 
ing the subject of this review an orphan- at 
the early age of four years. It will easily be 
inferred that the responsibilities of life were 
early forced upon the lad, who accompanied his 
father to Michigan in the year after his moth- 
er's death, being engaged in various activities 
and at various employments. When the great 
struggle of the Union cast its deepening 
shadow over the land, the patriotism of Mr. 
Russ was intensely quickened and he deter- 
mined to devote his services and life if neces- 
sary in the defense and support of the Union ; 
so he enlisted in Company L, First Michigan 
Cavalry, and after faithful service was dis- 
charged in 1865. The exigencies of the war 
bad brought him across the plains and at his 
honorable discharge from service his head- 
quarters were at Fort Bridger. Wyo. Immedi- 
ately after this he proceeded to Salt Lake City, 
and after a year's residence went to 'Weber 
Valley, thence after a year to Brigham Citv. 



where was his home for a period of seven or 
eight years. In 1885 be came to Idaho, and 
with this young and virile state and its pro- 
ductive possibilities he has since identified him- 
self. His first location was at the place he now 
occupies, where he located a homestead of 160 
acres, engaged in general farming and stock- 
raising, and this property he has developed by 
his care and studious attention until it is now 
one of the productive homes of this section of 
the country, having a fine supply of water and 
being under skillful and careful husbandry. 
Mr. Russ has long been identified with irri- 
gation matters, as from the first of his resi- 
dence here he has taken an active part therein 
and given largely of his time and energies 
b 'wards the establishment of the system which 
now so thoroughly performs its work. Having 
a great interest in education, Mr. Russ has 
been the efficient president of his school dis- 
trict since 1895. while in the Mormon church, 
of which he is a consistent and active member, 
he is superintendent of the Sunday school and 
also holds the position of one of the Seven- 
ties. 

Mr. Russ has been twice married, his first 
union being with Miss Ellen Flygan, to whom 
be was married in 1867. She died on Septem- 
ber 0, 1890. being the mother of four children : 
Anna, Mary, Daniel and Albert, deceased. Mr. 
Russ formed a second matrimonial union on 
July 17, 1892, with Mrs. Giristiana (Peter- 
son) Jorgensen. who was a native of Den- 
mark, her parents passing their entire lives 
in her native land. This Mrs. Russ had two 
children by her first husband. Eli Moreni, liv- 
ing, and Eliza, who died and is buried at Bear 
River City. Utah. 

As a citizen Mr. Russ ranks among the 
foremost, giving his support to all measures 
and movements which he believes will best 
promote the public good, being honorable in 
his dealings, reliable in the discharge of every 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



553 



civil or religious trust reposed on him, emi- 
nently faithful to his duties in private life, and 
it is not too much to say that he commands 
the respect of his compeers and enjoys the 
friendship of all with whom he has been asso- 
ciated either in business or church relations. 

WILLIAM DAVIS. 

A native of England, where he was born on 
September 2j, 1848. at Dorsetshire, the young- 
est son of William and Lucy (Davis) Davis, 
the gentleman whose name heads this review 
is one of the pioneers of the Mormon region 
in Utah and Idaho, and who has won distinc- 
tive honor by faithfully discharging responsi- 
ble trusts connected with the immigration and 
settlement of the Mormon emigrants, who is 
now maintaining his home on his well improved 
and cultivated ranch which it situated within 
less than two miles northeast of Wilford post- 
office, Fremont count) - , Idaho. Any work 
which holds as its mission the preservation of 
the careers and endeavors of pioneer people of 
this section of the Rocky Mountain region 
would be decidedly incomplete without some- 
thing more than the mere mention of the use- 
ful activities of Mr. Davis. Coming with his 
parents from England at the age of seven 
years, he had the great misfortune while on the 
way to Omaha, Neb., to lose his father by 
death. He continued the journey across the 
dreary desert plains in company with his 
mother and older members of the family, and 
on their arrival in Utah the family home was 
established at Bountiful, where Mr. Davis gave 
filial service to the family interests by giving 
effective labors in the various branches of hus- 
bandry carried on on the home place, continu- 
ing to do this until attaining the age of twenty 
years, when he initiated his independent busi- 
ness operations by engaging in freighting, 
which he conducted with very satisfactory re- 



sults between various places of the numerous 
mining camps. In 1866, having his residence 
then at Montpelier, Bear Lake county, Idaho, 
he was selected hy the church authorities to go 
to Omaha and take charge of the church train 
which was bringing Mormon emigrants to 
Utah, and was occupied in this connection until 
the fall of that year, thereafter accompanying 
these emigrants and assisting them in settling 
in Hooper section, Utah. There he was an ef- 
ficient factor in constructing canals and ditches 
for irrigating purposes, and in this locality he 
remained for the long period of sixteen years, 
conducting diversified farming and also 
freighting in this new section of country. In 
1886 he came to Fremont county, Idaho, where 
he filed on a homestead of 160 acres, it being 
a part of his present improved and productive 
ranch, and from that time he has devoted his 
energies to the development and improvement 
of this property, adding thereto additional land 
by purchase as circumstances seemed to de- 
mand, and from this as his headquarters he 
conducts both cattle and sheepraising on an ex- 
tensive scale, his operations being both cumu- 
lative and productive. 

It is perhaps not too much to say that no 
one in this section of the county has taken a 
more prominent part in the bringing- of water 
to the various dry sections by irrigation canals, 
and in this connection we will mention that he 
was an original member and a director of the 
Fall River Irrigation Co.. of which his brother 
is the president. A man of sound thought, 
possessing a vital interest in everything - that 
would affect the welfare of the country, Mr. 
Davis early allied himself with the Republican 
political party and is considered one of its 
solid and stanch representatives in this sec- 
tion of the state, whose services are ever given 
to the success of its campaigns and his counsel 
is of great value to the party leaders. As a 
member of the Mormon church, Mr. Davis is 



554 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



held in high esteem and most worthily holds 
the office of elder. 

On March 8, 1869, Mr. Davis was joined 
in matrimony with Miss Polly C. Hanmon, a 
daughter of Levi and Polly (Dybee) Hanmon, 
and of this union have been born the follow- 
ing thirteen children : Polly A., deceased, 
Martha E., deceased, William, Lucy J., John 
H., Levi S., Daniel J., George R., Albert M., 
Elizabeth A., Rosa M., Betsy A. and Myrtle 
E. After an eminently useful life passed 
largely for the benefit of others Mr. Davis is 
now pleasantly located in prosperous financial 
circumstances, enjoying the esteem and confi- 
dence of a large circle of friends and acquaint- 
ances and honored and revered for his many 
estimable qualities of head and heart, while his 
family occupies a conceded place in the lead- 
ing ranks of the citizens of the county. 

JOSEPH ROBERTS MESERVY. 

Joseph R. Meservy, great-grandson of Ed- 
ward Meservy and Mary Peree, grandson nf 
Edward Messervy and Jane Laurens Messer- 
vy, and son of Joshua Messerw and Jane 
Roberts Messervy, was born in St. John's par- 
ish, Jersey, an island in the British Channel 
belonging to England, on the 30th day of 
April, 1842. On account of people finding 
it difficult to pronounce the name Messervy, 
the subject has dropped one s, thus assisting 
to obviate the difficulty. When five years old 
he undertook to climb into a cart through a 
hole in the hind part which closed with a slide, 
but as the cart was high he had to climb upon 
the wheel to reach the opening; having gotten 
his head through, the slide dropped on his 
neck and losing his foothold upon the wheel 
he remained hanging by the neck till he was 
discovered sometime after, but not until nearly 
dead from strangulation. On another occa- 
sion he was thrown from a high swing and left 



for dead by an evil-minded uncle. Not long 
after this a heavy rock, falling from a high 
wall, dropped on the back of his head as he 
was stooping at the foot of the wall and his 
skull was fractured, the scar still being visible. 
When eight years old he fell from the rafters 
of an old building some fifteen feet to the floor, 
alighting on his back. He had scarcely recov- 
ered from this accident when he was struck in 
the temple with a large rock thrown at a dog 
by an infuriated man, and the wound had 
liked to prove fatal. 

His tender years were principally spent in 
school, where he learned to read and write 
French. In the year 185 1 his parents were 
proselyted to the Mormon faith and two years 
later emigrated to Utah, crossing the Atlantic 
in a sailing vessel, the Golconda. which sailed 
from Liverpool, January 23, 1853. On this 
voyage a storm was encountered, the masts 
were broken off and fell on one side of the 
vessel, but, being held by ropes and spars, 
caused the ship to cant alarmingly to leeward 
while the waters clashed over the deck. The 
sailors themselves gave up hope, declaring that 
the ship and crew would be at the bottom by 
morning; but the weather became more calm 
and no lives were lost, though it took time 
to again erect pieces of mast sufficiently high 
to cany sail, and the vessel only landed in 
New Orleans after having been three months 
on the water. 

The journey across the plains was made 
with ox teams. While crossing the Pawnee 
country the Indians, with which the country 
seemed to be literally alive, held up the train 
and demanded a great quantity of presents, 
and got them, too, but when the captain, Jo- 
seph W. Young, saw that 110 more of the camp 
supplies could be spared and that the savages 
insisted for more, he ordered every man in 
the train to shoulder his gun, telling them they 
might as well die fighting the "red skins" as 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



555 



starve to death before reaching the valley. The 
old chief finally consented to let- them pass. 
While traveling through the Sweet Water 
country nearly all of the cattle were alkalied 
and a great many of them died. Cattle were 
brought from Utah to enable the company to 
continue their journey to Salt Lake. It was 
fourteen weeks from the time the company 
left Keokuk, Iowa, before Salt Lake City was 
reached, on October 16, 1853. 

The Messervy family has lived in various 
places in Utah and Idaho. In the year 1863 
Joseph drove four yoke of oxen to Florence, 
Neb., and back to assist the immigration. On 
the 25th of December (Christmas), 1864, he 
married Augusta P. Cook, daughter of Phineas 
W. Cook and Ann Eliza Howland Cook, de- 
scendants of the Plymouth Rock colony. This 
woman was born at Winter Quarters (Flor- 
ence), Neb., March 9, 1848. The marriage 
took place in Ithica, Rich county, Utah. He 
had two children by this wife, viz : Ann Au- 
gusta, born March 6, 1866, and Joseph, who 
died at birth, September 24, 1867. The mother 
only lived two days later and took leave of 
this world September 26th, after indescribable 
sufferings. Joseph's second marriage occurred 
March 9, 1869, at Salt Lake City, when he 
wedded the daughter of Chester Southworth 
and Mary (Byington) Southworth, she having 
been born in Pottawattomie, Iowa, June 18, 
1852. This wife bore two children, a daugh- 
ter, Laura Precindi'a, born May 14, 1870, at 
Pish Haven, Idaho, and Robert Chester, who 
was born January 9, 1872, at Brigham City, 
Utah, and on the 4th of February in the same 
year this spouse also passed away, leaving the 
subject of this sketch for the second time a 
disconsolate widower. 

In the early history of Utah good schools 
were scarce, but the subject, being of a natur- 
ally studious mind, managed to obtain what 
education was to be had in ordinary schools 



before reaching his majority, and after mar- 
riage he attended high school and university, 
and shortly after the death of his second wife, 
was enabled to pass the necessary and requisite 
examination to entitle him to a teacher's certifi- 
cate. He taught some seventeen consecutive 
winters, fifteen of them in his own neighbor- 
hood, with good satisfaction to his employers 
and still has many school teacher's certificates 
in possession, which indicate the passage of as 
many examinations. In the year 1877, Janu- 
ary 1st, Joseph married his third wife, Mary O. 
Kingsbury, daughter of Joseph Cordon Kings- 
bury and Dorcas (Moore) Kingsbury, born 
in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jauary 7, 1852 ; this 
wife has borne him ten children, to-wit : Oli- 
ver K., born October 8, 1877; Dorcas Joseph- 
ine, born March 23, 1879; Julia Henriette, 
born November 22, 1880; James Alonzo, born 
February 18, 1883 ; Phebe Annis, born April 
16, 1885; Jane Ophelia, born February 11, 
1888; David Cordon, born April 9, 1890; 
Mary Rozelia, born August 9, 1892 ; Salina 
Irene, born February 15, 1895; and Louisa 
Melvina, born August 24, 1898. The number 
of deaths recorded in Mr. Meservy's family 
are : Joseph, who died September 24, 1867 ; 
Augusta Precindia, his first wife, died Septem- 
ber 26, 1867 ; Laura Salina, second wife, died 
February 4, 1872 ; Ann Augusta, first daugh- 
ter, died January 23, 1883, aged seventeen 
years; Robert Chester, second son, was 
drowned in Snake River, May 26, 1890, aged 
eighteen years ; David Cordon died October 8, 
1 891, aged eighteen months; Louisa Melvina 
died December 22, 1S98, aged four months. 

In the year 1887 Mr. Meservy erected a 
small grist and sawmill at Wilford, Idaho, 
where he moved his family the year following. 
Here he pre-empted a quarter-section of land, 
which he in six months made a cash entry of, 
making final proof of same without further 
delay. 



556 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Mr. Meservy being the son of a first-class 
carpenter and possessed of mechanical talent, 
has been able to direct and supervise the erec- 
tion of all his buildings, having also construct- 
ed dwellings and meeting houses by contract 
in Ogden and Hooper, Utah. 

The offices filled by Mr. Meservy at Bear 
Lake, Idaho, were : Juror, one term ; constable, 
two terms ; road supervisor, one term ; at 
Hooper, Utah, he served as school trustee four 
terms : secretary of water companies for Hoop- 
er, South Hooper and West Weber, two terms ; 
as a director for said companies, one term ; 
fence viewer, one term ; justice of the peace, 
two terms ; road supervisor, one term ; assessor 
and collector for school district ; deputy county 
registrar; and in Davis county (the south half 
of Hooper being in the latter county), deputy 
county tax collector. In Wilford, Idaho, he 
has served as justice of the peace nearly eight 
years and still holds the office ; as deputy 
county surveyor Fremont county, one term ; as 
director of Fall River Irrigation Co., one term. 
Besides these, he has filled a mission to Swit- 
zerland, where he expounded the doctrines of 
the Latter Day Saints in the French and Ger- 
man languages and where he was called to pre- 
side over what was known as the Jura con- 
ference until, on account of ill health, he was 
sent to the Channel Islands, finishing his mis- 
sion in the Liverpool conference in England. 
For thirty years, while residing in Fish Haven. 
Idaho. Flooper and South Hooper. Utah, and 
Wilford, Idaho, lie was ward clerk and bishop's 
secretary. He also has filled the positions of 
Sunday school superintendent and presiding 
elder over a ward. Since his return home from 
mission he has filled the office of president of 
the one hundred and thirteenth quorum of 
Seventy. During the early settlement of Utah, 
while the Indians were dangerous, he acted as 
minute man for eight years. He was the prin- 
cipal man on the Wilford townsite committee 



in January, 1890, the final proof being made 
under him, and when the entry was contested 
a few years later he also conducted the pro- 
ceedings in defense of the owners through at- 
torneys Stewart and Dietrich. The home of- 
fice at Blackfoot deciding against them, an ap- 
peal was taken io the commissioner at Wash- 
ington, D. C, who reversed the decision of 
the Blackfoot office. 

Mr. Meservy's oldest living son. Oliver K.. 
is a man of twenty-six years of age, six feet 
four inches tall, of fine physique, with eyes that 
beam with intelligence. He is a pronounced 
mathematician and certified bookkeeper ; has 
filled a mission to the Southern states; is su- 
perintendent of Sunday schools, ward clerk, di- 
rector and secretary to Wilford Irrigation Co.. 
road supervisor, postmaster and clerk for 
other concerns, and a juror for Fremont county. 
Idaho. 

ABRAHAM BRANSON. 

The men of strong vitality and deep reli- 
gious enthusiasm who have laid broad and deep 
the foundations of civilization in the Great 
West will be honored in years to come as the 
heroes of this period, and the simple annals of 
their lives, recorded in volumes of this char- 
acter, will possess a value which we of the 
present generation can not fully realize, and 
the accounts of their activities taken down 
from their own lips will be far more interest- 
ing than ponderous volumes of historical dis- 
quisitions or the masters of poetry and fic- 
tion. Among this truly historic number must 
be assigned a place to Abraham Branson, who 
was the first person to locate in the region of 
his present residence, one mile southeast of 
Edmunds postoffice, Fremont county. Idaho. 

Mr. Branson was born on September 3, 
1850, in Nottinghamshire, England, a son of 
William and Elizabeth (Brackwock) Branson. 
both the paternal and maternal lines of ances- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



557 



tral connection reaching" back through many 
generations of rural life in England, the pa- 
ternal grandfather being Thomas Branson, a 
lifelong farmer. William Branson and family 
emigrated from England in 1871, in company 
with other converts to the Mormon faith, and 
after their arrival at Utah made the family 
home in the new country where has since 
grown up the important city of Ogden. Here 
they filled well their station in life, the father 
attaining the patriarchal ag'e of nearly ninety 
years, the mother dying in 1896, at the age of 
seventy-seven years, being the mother of 
twelve children. 

Abraham Branson when a lad of twelve 
years joined in the family migration to Utah 
and came to the years of manhood while in- 
dustriously pursuing the duties of a teamster 
for the mercantile house of Walker Bros, at 
Ogden, with whose operations he was con- 
nected in this capacity for ten years. Then, 
being twenty-three years of age, and desirous 
of establishing a home of his own, in 1882 he 
came as a pioneer to this section, and, locating 
on Egin bench, he became one of the very 
earliest settlers, homesteading 160 acres of 
splendidly located land in close proximity to 
the present postoffice settlement of Edmunds, 
becoming at once an active worker in the con- 
struction of irrigating ditches and the devel- 
opment of his landed estate. There he initi- 
ated fanning operations and engaged in the 
raising of horses, cattle and sheep and with 
these departments of agricultural prosperity 
he has since been continuously identified, dur- 
ing his residence here assisting in the con- 
struction of every irrigation ditch of this sec- 
tion, and giving most potential aid to the fur- 
therance of all public matters of a general or 
local character. He has acquired the reputa- 
tion of being an active man of affairs, one to 
be found on the right side of every question 
agitating public sentiment and discussion, and 



in the Mormon church holding with dignity 
and ability the office of elder. 

On November 25, 1881, Mr. Branson was 
married with Miss Louisa Martin, born at 
Wilson, Utah, a daughter of John and Sarah 
A. (Sergeant) Martin, who emigrated from 
England in 1835, eventually came to Utah 
with one of the handcart brigades, and after 
long years of faithful labor and useful activity 
the}' are now maintaining their residence in 
Weber county, Utah, both having nearly 
reached the age of four score years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Branson have been blessed with twelve 
children, Ellen L., Abraham, John E. and 
William A. (twins), Herbert, Lyman, Law- 
rence. Fannie G., Martin, Earle, Joseph, de- 
ceased, and Sarah E. 

E. D. STEVENSON. 

Born on October 2, 1864, at Farmington. 
Utah, a son of James A. and Eleanore (White) 
Stevenson, the subject of this sketch, E. D. 
Stevenson, has from attaining mature years 
been a prominent factor in the commercial cir- 
cles of the section of country where he has 
maintained his home, and well deserves the 
compliment so common to the West of being 
called a "hustler." His present business, 
which is that of agent at St. Anthony, Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, for Studebaker Bros.' line 
of farm implements, wagons, etc., gives him a 
fine opportunity of making the acquaintance of 
the people, and he is known throughout the 
countryside as one of the county's enterpris- 
ing, progressive business men, being widely 
and favorably known to a large acquaintance. 
His father was born in the state of New York, 
and after arriving at early manhood he went 
to California in 1849 as one °f ^ e earliest of 
that vast throng of goldseekers which then 
commenced to invade that country. After suc- 
cessful operations in that state for a few years. 



558 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



he permanently settled at Farmington, Utah, 
in 1850. and from that time to the present has 
heen a useful citizen, quietly pursuing the di- 
versified labors connected with a quiet farm- 
ing existence and still living, hale and hearty,. 
at the age of seventy-three years, being a mem- 
ber of the Church of Latter Day Saints. The 
mother, also a native of New York, came to 
Utah when in her youth, accompanying her 
parents, Joseph and Ruby (Stearnes) White, 
and is still living at the age of seventy-two 
years. She and her husband celebrated their 
golden wedding in November, 1902. on which 
occasion they entertained a large number of 
relatives and friends. 

Mr. Stevenson lived in Farmington until 
the age of fourteen years, learning to labor at 
an early age and manifesting such decided 
qualities of independence and individuality, be- 
ing gifted with an ardent and enthusiastic tem- 
perament and an excellent physical organiza- 
tion, a keen and practical mind accompanied by 
great energy and force of will, that from that 
time to the present he has not only demon- 
strated that he was equal to any emergency 
in which he was placed, but also that he was 
competent to carry any project in which he 
might engage through to assured completion 
and success. At the age of fourteen years he 
commenced to become acquainted with the 
country surrounding him. visiting Idaho, Wyo- 
ming and Nevada, and being engaged therein 
in various occupations until 1884. when, com- 
ing to Fremont county, he made a location five 
miles west of St. Anthony and there filed a 
homestead claim and engaged in the primitive 
farming operations which were the only ones 
possible at that time. Here he remained, how- 
ever, but a short period of time, from thence 
going to Montana, where he passed some years 
in the mines but returning to Fremont county 
in March, 1900, and purchasing a partially im- 
proved place where he conducted agricultural 



operations until 1897. He was then engaged 
by the Studebaker firm, which he represents 
as their agent in this section of the state, giv- 
ing such satisfaction and enlarging his busi- 
ness to such an extent that he has continued 
to be identified with them until the present. 
It is not too much to say that in all business 
associations with which he is and has been con- 
nected, his judgment, conclusions and coun- 
sels are generally adopted. He contemplates 
public matters of a general and local nature 
from the standpoint of the Republican party, 
giving active service in its campaigns, but pre- 
ferring to remain aloof from all public offices 
or political distinction ; he. however, has, for 
the benefit of the community where he was re- 
siding, held the office of road supervisor for 
several years. 

On April 8. 1890, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Stevenson and Miss Olive M. Crapo. 
who was born in Cache Valley. Utah, a 
daughter of Albert and Margaret (Oldham) 
Crapo. early pioneers of Utah, the mother 
crossing the plains with one of the ox-team 
companies previous to her husband, while the 
father came in a later company of ox teams. 
They met and were married in Cache Valley, 
where, as prosperous agriculturists, they 
passed their lives until 1896, when they re- 
moved their home and residence to Parker. 
Idaho. The Crapo family is one of the oldest 
of New England's pioneers, and traces back 
to Huguenot ancestry in France prior to the 
Fifteenth Century. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson 
have one child. Clifford. The Stevenson fam- 
ilv have ever been known as lovers of liberty, 
strenuous in asserting their rights, having the 
courage to maintain their convictions and being 
determined in their opposition to all forms of 
tyranny, but generous, charitable and hospit- 
able, their generosity being dominated by a 
deep religious fervor and a regard for the 
welfare and comfort of others. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



559 



WALTER G. PAUL. 

One of the representative business men of 
Rexburg, Fremont county, Idaho, where he 
is conducting the pioneer undertaking estab- 
lishment of the county, and where for many 
years he has been active in public and progress- 
ive measures, and been prominently identified 
in an official manner with the Church of Lat- 
ter Day Saints, Walter G. Paul was born at 
Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 24, 1859, 
the second of the eleven children of Walter 
and Elizabeth Ann Paul, natives of England, 
who early emigrated from their native land, 
coming to Utah in 1847, the first year of the 
Mormon immigration, residing at Salt Lake 
City until 1873, thereafter removing to the 
Cache Valley and later to Rexburg, where they 
now reside. 

After attaining his majority Walter G. 
Paul was employed for eight months in the 
construction of the Mormon temple at Logan, 
and then was called to mission work in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, in which he was con- 
tinued for twenty-five months. He experi- 
enced many hardships, on his return there- 
from, in 1884, proceeding directly to Rex- 
burg, where he soon located a homestead of 
160 acres, of which he devoted one-half to 
be used as a city cemetery for Rexburg. He 
engaged in carpentry, in which he has been dil- 
igently occupied until the present time, being 
also one of the most active in securing and 
constructing the necessary irrigation canals for 
this portion of the country, and a man who 
has ever given generous support to all public 
movements of a local character which were 
promulgated for the benefit of the people. 

In 1895 he engaged in undertaking, es- 
tablishing the pioneer house in this line within 
the limits of Fremont county. Prior to this 
time he and his father had made all of the 
coffins and done the undertaking' business for 



an area extending several miles in all direc- 
tions from Rexburg, and the eminently satis- 
factory manner in which the duties have been 
performed has drawn to his patronage a repre- 
sentative class of citizens. A Democrat in 
political affiliations, Mr. Paul has ever been 
loyal to his party and regularly supported its 
candidates in its successive campaigns, but 
has steadily refused to seek official candidacy 
or position, though, on the organization of 
Fremont county, he was appointed by the gov- 
ernor as the first coroner of the county. In 
the performance - of his duty as a loyal mem- 
ber of his church he has been called to many 
positions of grave responsibility and trust, no- 
tably those of teacher, deacon, elder, priest, 
and since the organization of the eighty-fourth 
quorum he has been a member of the Seven- 
ties. He was the first superintendent of Ban- 
nock stake, and on his arrival in Fremont 
county was the first returned missionary. 
When Bingham stake was formed Mr. Paul 
was set apart as its superintendent, holding 
the office for several years, and in 1897 he 
was on a mission in Montana for six months, 
but since 1900 he has not been so active in 
church work as in previous years. 

On April 10, 1885, Mr. Paul united in 
marriage with Miss Catherine S. Painter, a 
daughter of George and Jane Painter, natives 
of England, who crossed the plains to Utah 
in one of the early ox-team companies, locat- 
ing at Farmington, but soon removing to Lo- 
gan, of which place they were pioneers. Here, 
after lives of constant industry and exemplified 
piety, the father passed from earth in 1900, at 
seventy-two years of age, while the mother 
died June 6, 1904, at the age of seventy-six 
years. To Mr. and Mrs. Paul have been born 
the following children : Jane Elizabeth, born 
December 18, 1885, died April 17, 1891 ; Ethel 
Aim, born November 23, 1886 ; Joseph Wal- 
ter, born October 20, 1888, died August 23, 



560 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1891 ; Gilbert G., born September 5, 1890, 
died April 2, 1891 ; Mary M., born August 19, 
1892, died May 30, 1895 ; Alfred H., born 
October 5, 1894; Nephi, born and died Sep- 
tember 29, 1896; Emeline died at birth, July 
15, 1898; Priscilla, born August 15. 1901, died 
June 23. 1904. 

ARTHUR J. GOODY. Sr. 

When one for the first time gazes upon 
such a country as was the Upper Snake River 
Valley in its primal condition, when the wind- 
ing river flowed steadily onward with undi- 
minished volume through the wide expanse of 
sage plains, the mighty mountain ranges and 
peaks standing like giant sentinels to guard 
the stillness of the yet uninhabited land, he is 
lifted out of the present and recognizes the 
grandeur of the great creative spirit which is 
there presented, and life is no longer confined 
within the limits of a pent-up space ; it reaches 
out to sublime distances and exalts him to no- 
bler things. This was the experience of many 
of the pioneers of this land when first their 
eyes fell upon it, but as year after year of in- 
dustrious labor has changed the unproductive 
solitude into the busy and thriving settlements 
of thousands of prosperous and happy people, 
and the glad song of content arises in even- 
portion of the valley, there is a higher sense 
of beauty presented to the mind, a breadth 
and a splendor that the early days knew noth- 
ing of. 

The subject of this review, Arthur J. 
Goody. Sr., one of the progressive men of 
Fremont county. Idaho, must have been well in 
touch with both of these moods, for he has 
been an earnest laborer in the work of bring- 
ing the wild lands of this region into cultiva- 
tion from the pioneer occupation. He was 
born on January 27, 1850, in London, Eng- 
land, a son of Henry and Mary (Wiltshire") 



Goody, whom he preceded by one year in 
their emigration from England in 1864, > n 
which they performed the slow journey across 
the plains with ox teams and settled in Lehi, 
Utah, where the father long worked at his 
trade of mason and bricklayer, and later con- 
tinued his residence until his death, on January 
1, 1893, at seventy-nine years of age, surviv- 
ing his wife, whose eyes closed in death on 
February 6, 1891, aged seventy-nine years. 

When Mr. Goody came to Utah, in 1863, 
he was but thirteen years of age and the great 
Civil war was then at its height, and he re- 
members most vividly the strange experiences 
that met him evervwhere from his landing on 
American shores until he had reached Utah 
and was quietly engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits in that still new town of Lehi. Hither 
the parents came in the succeeding year and he 
continued also there to abide for three industri- 
ous years of farming life, thence going to per- 
form the same kind of labor in the Cache 
Valley, where he was diligently employed until 
1883, being prospered in his undertakings. He 
then removed to the fertile Snake River Val- 
ley, where he became the owner, by homestead- 
ing, of 160 acres of land near Lewisville, Fre- 
mont county. Idaho. Here he is now residing 
and receiving the reward of his long and ardu- 
ous labors in the reclamation of land, conduct- 
ing- general farming and the raising of a small 
amount of stock. Industry, persevering and 
persistent application to the care of his place 
have been leading characteristics of Mr. 
(hi, iily, who has been ever esteemed as a val- 
uable member of the community of his resi- 
dence. He has ever voted the Republican 
ticket, being a full believer in the principles of 
that political party, but has ever shrank from 
striving after political or public office, prefer- 
ring to quietly work in all matters of public 
improvement. He assisted to build all of the 
earlv irrigating canals, being- a director of the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



56i 



Parks & Lewisville Canal Co. for three years. 
He was ordained an elder in the Mormon 
church on November 29, 1869, an office which 
he has filled to the present time with great 
acceptability. 

At Salt Lake City, on November 29, 1869, 
Mr. Goody and Miss Julia A. Uyler were 
joined in matrimony. She was born at Farm- 
ington, Utah, on July 25, 1853, a daughter of 
James and Julia Ann (Brownell) Ingalls, who 
were a part of the Mormon immigration of 
1848, coming from their native state of Michi- 
gan and crossing the plains, their effects being 
drawn by oxen and cow teams. They were 
among the early settlers .of Farmington, 
Utah, where the father engaged in the primi- 
tive farming operations of the period until 
i860, thence removing to a small farm of 
twenty acres in the Cache Valley and there 
residing until his removal to Idaho in 1883. 
There he took up a government homestead at 
Lewisville, Fremont county, where he and his 
estimable wife passed the closing years of their 
life, the father, who was born on February 3, 
1822, dying at seventy-two years of age, on 
May 20, 1894, and the mother, who was born 
on February 12, 1826, dying on January 26, 
1899. 

Three children have come to the home of 
Mr. and Mrs. Goody, namely: Arthur James, 
born March 6, 1871 ; Mary Julia, born August 
3, 1872, and Frank Henry, born May 1, 1877. 

HON. ALBERT HEATH. 

The character of the people comprising the 
majority of the citizens of southeastern Idaho 
may be described as intelligent, practical, re- 
sourceful, brave, daring and conspicuously 
law-abiding, for they are people who are en- 
gaged industriously cultivating the arts of 
peace and harmony, while by their untiring in- 
dustry thev are bringing into value the profit- 



able resources of the state that until recently 
have laid undeveloped and unprofitable. It 
is a character of action, having naught to do 
with idle dreaming, and the man who here 
takes rank and precedence must have developed 
qualities of head and heart above the ordinary. 
In the land of the Great West events move 
with startling rapidity and the representatives 
of the people who hold official place must needs 
possess keen vision, clear understanding, and 
undoubted wisdom, for the tide of action 
sweeps rapidly onward, and they are daily lia- 
ble to be confronted by new conditions, new 
responsibilities, new ideas, through which they 
must aid in guiding the people and their in- 
terests into the untried future with hope and 
confidence to still more hopeful and still 
brighter life. The mighty pulse of the Twen- 
tieth Century is beating in the hearts of the 
sons of Idaho, but the future of the yet unde- 
veloped state depends almost entirely upon the 
statesmanship, patriotism, the ability and the 
wise conservatism of its representatives and 
legislators. 

Among the number whom the unerring in- 
stinct of the citizens have selected to maintain 
their rights and conserve their interests in the 
halls of legislation is Hon. Albert Heath, of 
near Edmuunds postoffice, who is the present 
incumbent of the responsible office of state 
senator. In any volume which purports to take 
recognition of the forceful and progressive 
men of this portion of Idaho, he must have 
distinctive place. 

Senator Heath was born at Cardiff, Wales, 
in 1863, and is descended on both agnatic and 
cognatic sides of his ancestry from ancient 
English and Scottish families, his parents be- 
ing George and Hannah (Gleed) Heath, na- 
tives of Wiltshire, England. His paternal 
grandparents were Solomon and Eliza (Pick- 
ett) Heath, lifelong residents of Wiltshire, 
while his maternal grandparents, Richard and 



562 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Elizabeth (Tibbals) Gleed. had their birth in 
Scotland. When he was twenty-five years of 
age the father of Senator Heath removed to 
Cardiff, Wales, there engaging in farming and 
the raising of fine horses until 1877. when as 
a faithful convert to the doctrines of the Mor- 
mon church he emigrated and came to Utah. 
After two years' residence at Ogden he 
made his permanent residence in Idaho, locat- 
ing at Oxford. Oneida county, where he com- 
bined the dual occupations of section foreman 
and farmer, and, at the age of seventy years, 
is now residing at Guernsey, enjoying the es- 
teem of the community and consistently mani- 
festing in his life from day to day the religious 
teachings of his church. His affectionate wife, 
to whom he was married in England in 1861. 
died at Oxford, Idaho, on April 5, 1895, at 
the age of sixty-one. Of her eight children 
three survive, of whom Senator Heath is the 
eldest. 

Until he was fourteen years old Senator 
Heath lived at Cardiff, Wales, attending the 
celebrated schools of that ancient city as cir- 
cumstances allowed, thereafter coming to Utah 
and identifying himself with pleasure with the 
new life here existing. He resided with his 
parents at Ogden for four years, when he en- 
tered upon the strenuous life of a freighter for 
a time in the Wood River country and in Ore- 
gon, after this being connected with railroad 
surveying operations and being a member of 
the party that surveyed the Oregon Railway 
& Navigation Co.'s line from Houghton to 
Baker City, Ore., continuing thus employed 
until 1889, when he engaged in ranching near 
Ogden. We might appropriately mention 
here that Senator Heath has ever been a dili- 
gent student, always doing full credit to his 
instructors and readily and rapidly assimilat- 
ing learning. Graduating with an assured 
standing from the New West Academy at Ox- 
ford in 1895, he became a successful teacher in 



various schools, never holding lower than sec- 
ond and first-grade certificates, and for six- 
teen consecutive winters was employed in 
this capacity in Bannock and Fremont 
counties, forming a large circle of valuable 
friends and in 1886 teaching the only school 
on the north side of the river. In 1896 he es- 
tablished his home in Fremont county at his 
present location, two miles southwest of Ed- 
munds postoffice, and from that time he has 
been prosperously engaged in ranching and 
stock-raising operations. 

Senator Heath has been a vital force in lo- 
cal Republican circles since attaining citizen- 
ship in Idaho, holding positions on county and 
state committees of his party, and his capabil- 
ity for successfully and creditably holding offi- 
cial position has often been recognized. He 
held with benefit to the people the position of 
sheep inspector of Bannock count}- and was 
nominated there for county commissioner and 
made a creditable showing as a minority can- 
didate. In 1900 he was an unsuccessful can- 
didate for member of the state Legislature, 
owing to the political exigencies of the cam- 
paign. In 1902 he made a brilliant campaign 
as a candidate of his party for state senator 
of his district, and was elected by a very grati- 
fying majority and is now in the incumbency 
of that distinguished office, doing the will of 
his constituents to the satisfaction of more 
than his party associates. In local matters 
Senator Heath has ever been prominent and 
useful, the causes of irrigation and of educa- 
tion especially receiving the benefit of his in- 
fluence and his wise discrimination, while in 
the Church of Latter Day Saints he is the 
high counsellor from the Piano ward of Fre- 
mont stake. 

In 1889 Senator Heath was joined in wed- 
lock with Miss Mary P. Hillman, of Salt Lake 
City, a sister of Mayhew Hillman. a sketch of 
whom, with information of their ancestry, ap- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



563 



pears on other pages of this work. Her 
earthly activities closed on June 17, 1895. at 
the age of forty-one years, leaving a son, Al- 
bert R. Heath. The second marriage of Sena- 
tor Heath occurred in 1897, when he wedded 
. Mrs. Martha J. (Davenport) Walton, of Rich- 
wood, Utah, a daughter of James and Mar- 
garet (Petty) Davenport, natives of Illinois 
and Tennessee. The father came to Utah in 
1847, an d the mother accompanied her par- 
ents thither in 1850. The father died on July 
11, i860, aged sixty years, the mother still 
making her home at Richwood, Utah. By her 
previous marriage with B. F. Walton, Mrs. 
Heath has one son, William E., and the fam- 
ily circle of Senator Heath is still further ex- 
tended by an adopted daughter, Lillian. 

FRANK V. LAPHAM. 

Descending from an old English family 
that for many generations has made an Ameri- 
can home in New England, Frank V. Lap- 
ham, now an independent rancher and farmer 
on the Egin bench, maintaining his home 
within one mile of Piano postoffice, which is 
his address, was born in 1864, in Douglas 
county, Kans., a son of the marriage union of 
Solomon and Harriet (Varnum) Lapham. 
The father was a representative of that numer- 
ous and distinguished branch of the Lapham 
family long prominently connected with affairs 
in the state of Maine, where he was born and 
reared, removing, however, to Kansas and 
there marrying his wife, who was a native of 
the state of Massachusetts and also a de- 
scendant of prominent families of Colonial 
reputation. Immediately after his marriage 
he erected the first house in the now populous 
city of Lawrence and had an active share in 
the troublous times of the period as a defender 
of the Free State cause. Thereafter, after 
many years of agricultural activity, he be- 

32— 



came one of the pioneer settlers on the Egin 
bench of Fremont county, Idaho, where he is 
now residing at the Biblical limit of life, 
three score and ten years, but still hale and 
hearty, both in mind and body, and with his 
estimable wife, who has attained the age of 
sixty years and for so many years has been his 
faithful and energetic helpmeet, are receiving 
the respect and esteem to which their eminently 
useful lives justly entitle them. 

Frank V. Lapham passed his youthful life 
in the pioneer existence of Kansas, receiving a 
proper education for participating in the 
strenuous life of the Great West, most loyally 
devoting his services to the assistance of his 
parents until he had attained the age of sev- 
enteen years. Then, accompanying his par- 
ents to their new and primitive Idaho home, 
he here "took up the burden of life" for him- 
self and was identified for a number of years 
with a cattleraising outfit in the capacity of 
foreman. In 1887 he located at his present 
place of residence, where he filed on a home- 
stead, which, as soon as he could secure the 
application of water, he began to develop and 
improve, and engaged in diversified farming 
in connection therewith, paying due attention 
to the raising of cattle of superior breeds. He 
was prospered in his undertakings and was 
connected with local operations of public in- 
terest and the general good, especially with 
the Independent Irrigation Canal Co. as a di- 
rector and its present treasurer, standing in 
public esteem as a most honorable and useful 
citizen and a representative of the best type 
of an Idaho agriculturist. 

In 1893 occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Lapham and Miss Emma Hyatt, a native of 
Utah, and a daughter of Samuel and Mary 
Hyatt. Mrs. Lapham died in 1899, at the 
age of twenty-four years, and for a second 
wife Mr. . Lapham married Miss Ettie Van 
Gorden, who was born in Utah, where her fa- 



564 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ther, E. E. Van Gorden, now maintains his 
home at Lewiston. To this marriage one son, 
Lavoy, has heen presented. 

GEORGE H. RICHMAN. 

A native of Maryland, where his birth oc- 
curred in 1861. a son of John and Sarah 
(Stephens) Richman, George H. Richman, 
whose prominent agricultural interests are lo- 
cated in the vicinity of Teton City, Fremont 
county, Idaho, where he is extensively en- 
gaged in agricultural and stockraising opera- 
tions of an important character, is universally 
acknowledged to be not only one of the repre- 
sentative stockmen of this section of the 
county and state, but a man of sterling and 
unwavering integrity, forcible energy and ex- 
cellent judgment. He has during his active 
life been conversant with manv and widely 
varied occupations and from his experience 
therein he has, by his keen observation, added 
largely to his already excellent fund of valuable 
observation, and he is now possessed of a most 
excellent practical education which serves him 
better than the learning of schools in the place 
and period with which his activities are con- 
nected. His father, a native of England, not 
long after his marriage emigrated and made 
the family residence in the state of Maryland 
in 1858. remaining there engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits until the spring of 1862, emi- 
grating at that time to Utah, crossing the 
plains with an ox-team train of Mormons des- 
tined for Utah. Safely arrived there, they lo- 
cated in ■ Paradise settlement in the Cache 
Valley, there becoming identified with farm- 
ing and making the family home until 1885, 
when he came to Teton City. Fremont county, 
Idaho, where he is now residing, at the age of 
seventy-five years, in possession of vigor of 
mind and body and superintending his exten- 
sive operations in farming and stockraising. 



and being prominentlv connected with the 
Mormon church as a high priest. 

The paternal grandparents of the subject of 
this review were Matthew and Mary Ann 
(Fogg) Richman. The grandfather, after the 
death of the grandmother in England, joined 
his son in Maryland. The mother was a 
daughter of Simon and Mar}- Ann Stephens, 
both residents of England, their native land. 
She passed away from earth on March 8. 1887, 
at the age of sixty-one years, her interment be- 
ing at the little cemetery of Teton City. 

Acquiring in the industrious and religious 
home of his youth qualities that will necessar- 
ily win success in any department of useful 
endeavor, and engaging in business life for 
himself at the age of eighteen years. Mr. Rich- 
man first devoted his attention to freighting 
in Montana for two years' time, thereafter 
assisting for two years in building the Rio 
Grande Railroad in southern Utah. He then 
engaged in farming for one season in Utah, 
thence coming to the site of Teton City in 
Fremont county. Idaho, then an uninhabited 
and unpromising location, where, taking up a 
homestead claim, he energetically engaged in 
the development of his property and in gen- 
eral farming. This was later supplemented 
by extensive operations in raising cattle and 
sheep, continuing labor on his property and se- 
curing a supply of water thereon through the 
means of the irrigation canal companies, in 
which he was a forcible factor and an ener- 
getic worker, in this connection holding the 
office of director in the Teton Irrigation and 
Manufacturing Co. and also being a director 
in the City Way Irrigation Co. His political 
sympathies are decidedly with the Democratic 
party, lint while laboring earnestly for the suc- 
cess of its candidates in its successive cam- 
paigns, he has steadily refused any position 
or candidacv for office. In the Mormon 
church, of which he is an influential member. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



565 



he has held the position of one of the Seven- 
ties and is the popular superintendent of the 
Sunday school. 

In 1882 Mr. Richman was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Mary W. McKinley, a na- 
tive of Scotland and a daughter of Robert and 
Isabelle (Watson) McKinley, who emigrated 
from Scotland in 1874 and after residing in 
Provo, Utah, about eight years, removed to 
Teton City, Idaho, where the father, who was 
bom on October 28, 1832, died on December 
24, 1900, and the mother is still residing at 
the age of sixty-eight years. Mr. and Mrs. 
Richman's family consists of the following 
children : Isabel, Henry, George, Robert (de- 
ceased), Hazel, Lillie, Ethel and Vernon. Mr. 
Richman gave most acceptable service as one 
of the trustees in the Teton school district, has 
been the first counsellor and the first president 
of the Mutual Improvement Association and 
was the second assistant of the first Sunday 
school, where he manifested such qualities of 
efficiency and capability that he received the 
position of superintendent. Mrs. Richman, a 
lady of culture and intelligence, was the first 
counsellor of the first Young Ladies' Associa- 
tion organized in Teton City, and from the 
time of its organization she has been promi- 
nent as a teacher, most satisfactory results 
having followed her endeavors, and the fam- 
ily stand high in the regards of the best peo- 
ple of the county. 

FREDERICK SMITH. 

Among the vigorous, sturdy, stirring, reso- 
lute and progressive ranchers who hold their 
residence and headquarters in the vicinity of 
St. Anthony, Fremont county. Idaho, there is 
none who has been more diligent or is more 
successfully operating in connection with the 
ranching and cattleraising industry than is 
Frederick Smith, the subject of this review, 



whose home and center of activities in his 
pursuits is located on his finely improved 
ranch which is situated less than four miles 
south of the thriving city of St. Anthony. 

Mr. Smith was born in 1865, in the south- 
ern part of Utah, being a son of Thomas S. 
and Amanda (Hollandshead) Smith. The fa- 
ther, who is a native of Michigan, crossed the 
plains in 1847 with one of the earliest ox-team 
battalions, becoming one of the first settlers of 
Farmington, Utah, where as a pioneer settler 
he was engaged in the development of agricul- 
tural interests of that section for many years, 
moving, however, to Fremont county, Idaho, 
in 1883 and locating his home at Wilford, 
where, on July 2, 1890, he died at the age of 
seventy-two years, his remains being conveyed 
to Farmington, Utah, for interment. He was 
a lifelong member of the Church of Latter 
Day Saints, highly esteemed for his uniform 
and consistent religious character and before 
his death held the office of bishop of Wilford 
ward, being released therefrom sometime pre- 
vious to his death on account of his age, and 
constituted a patriarch. His parents, Jede- 
diah and Abigail Smith, were also early Mor- 
mon pioneers of Utah. The mother of the 
subject, a native of Illinois, is now living, at 
the age of sixty-five years, in Canada, having 
been the mother of eight children. 

Frederick Smith passed his early days at 
Farmington, Utah, coming to maturity in the 
manner of the boys of that place and period, 
and at the age of twenty-one years he en- 
gaged in ranching, coming to Fremont county, 
Idaho, in 1883. In 1887 he filed on a home- 
stead, where he has developed a finely im- 
proved and productive ranch, it being situ-. 
ated three and one-half miles south of St. 
Anthony, which is his postoffice address, and 
here he has been engag'ed in a rapidly increas- 
ing cattleraising- business and in the develop- 
ment of his property. The subject of irriga- 



5 66 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tion has demanded great attention, and in that 
connection he is holding the office of secretary 
of the Wilford Canal Co., and is a 
stockholder in two other canal compa- 
nies. Politically Mr. Smith is identified 
with the Democratic party, with whose 
principles and policies he is in hearty 
accord. A consistent member of the Mor- 
mon church, he has given largely of his time 
and endeavors in its service, filling most ca- 
pably the place of teacher and being a highly 
acceptable superintendent of the Sunday 
school. 

The marriage of Mr. Smith was solem- 
nized in 1886, when he was united with Miss 
Sarah Higbee, a native of Utah and a daugh- 
ter of Silas and Melissa (Wheeler) Higbee. na- 
tives of Illinois and early pioneer settlers of 
Salt Lake City. Thereafter they made their 
home in Ogden, thence, in 1887, coming to 
Idaho, where they now maintain their home at 
Marysville. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith are Melissa, Rosa, Bell, James L., Myr- 
tle E., Clarence, Herschal and John H. Mr. 
Smith and family are held in high esteem in 
the community of their residence and he ably 
fills his part in all public matters of a local na- 
ture, being a strong friend and a good citizen 
of exemplary moral character. 

GEORGE DAVIS. 

Among the representative agriculturists of 
that section of Fremont county lying contigu- 
ous to the little village of Wilford, in the 
early period of the settlement, here located the 
subject of this review, George Davis. He 
has been a man of very marked character and 
distinction in the community, a stanch advo- 
cate of religion, a firm and fast friend to the 
educational interests of the young and en- 
thusiastic in his devotion to the development 
of the country and its agricultural possibilities. 



meriting well the universal esteem in which 
he is held by his fast friends and contempo- 
raries. 

Mr. Davis was born in 1833, in England, a 
son of William and Lucy Davis. His father 
was born in England in 1800 and there mar- 
ried Lucy, a daughter of Samuel and Phi His 
(Fancey) Davis, whose parents passed their 
lives in England, and there William Davis was 
engaged in farming operations until devotion 
to his religious principles caused the family 
emigration to the United States in 1855. He. 
however, was not spared to reach the land 
where he anticipated enjoying so much relig- 
ious freedom, but died, at the age of fifty- 
five years, in August, 1855, on the journey 
across the plains and was buried near the site 
of the present city of Omaha. It was a diffi- 
cult labor that now devolved upon his widow, 
who, however, sustained herself most capably 
and loyally, as only a cherishing mother could 
do, looking after the interests and welfare of 
her ten children, of which the subject of this 
review was the eldest. Proceeding to Utah, 
she located at Bountiful, in Davis county, re- 
maining until 1886. when she came to Idaho, 
and was the recipient of a most loyal and faith- 
ful devotion until her death, in 1895, at tne 
age of eighty-one years. George Davis was 
early forced to assume distinctive responsibili- 
ties in life, as at the time of his father's death, 
being then twenty-two years of age, he as- 
sumed the position of head of the family, most 
loyally cooperating with his mother in her 
plans and endeavors for the benefit and the 
rearing of her children in an appropriate and 
useful manner, giving his attention to agri- 
cultural pursuits in Utah, until he deemed it 
advantageous in many ways to identify him- 
self with the primitive conditions of life in 
Fremont county, where he made his residence 
in 1888. taking up a homestead of 160 acres 
which is now his attractive home. He is the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



56; 



pioneer leader in the construction of the Fall 
River Irrigating Canal, and has been identified 
with every other matter of public interest that 
has arisen since the days of his first settle- 
ment. 

Mr. Davis has been a most capable mem- 
ber of the Mormon church since his first resi- 
dence in Utah, holding for seven most useful 
and productive years the honored position of 
bishop of Wilford ward, but being now retired 
therefrom and devoting his energies to the 
duties of a teacher. In i860 occurred his 
marriage with Miss Elizabeth Hannan, a 
daughter of Levi and Polly (Bybee) Hannan, 
and this union has been blessed with twelve 
children, whose names are as follows : Eliza- 
beth J. (deceased), Rhoda A., Lucy E. (de- 
ceased), George A., Polly B. (deceased), Jo- 
seph L., Samuel H., Lydia M. (deceased), 
William H., John B., Sarah B. (deceased) and 
Nancy- Very generous in his nature, Mr. 
Davis lives more for others than for himself, 
and the part he has taken in erecting churches, 
the building of the academy and in the cause 
of education generally, with many other enter- 
prises in which he has been engaged in the 
past, speak well for his versatile and active 
mind and he will often be recalled in the fu- 
ture with honor and reverence. 

ALBERT HANNY. 

It is a far cry from the sage-covered plains 
and snow-capped mountains of Idaho to the 
edelweiss and sun-crowned mountains of the 
independent republic of Switzerland, but this 
journey we must travel if we would consult 
the official records of the ancestry of Mr. 
Hanny, who was born in that country, being a 
son of Christen and Aman (Forest) Hanny. 
He received his early education in the excel- 
lent schools of that country until he accom- 
panied his father, at the age of twelve years, 



on the long and wearisome journey of the 
family to the Mormon state of Utah, which 
they reached in 1872, making the family home 
at Midway in the fertile and productive valley 
of Provo. The father was there engaged in ag- 
riculture until his death, in September, 1886, 
at the age of eighty-four years, his faithful 
wife, the mother of the subject of this review, 
passing her entire life in Switzerland, where 
her death occurred when her son Albert was 
but six years of age. The father, however, 
again marrying, his second wife accompanied 
him to America. 

Mr. Hanny attained mature years in the 
Provo Valley of Utah, during his minority 
giving freely and most filially of his services 
to the assistance of his father in his agricul- 
tural operations. Upon attaining manhood, 
in 1879, he started on a trip to- the Salmon 
River country, his company being surrounded 
by hostile Indians on the way and detained for 
two days and three nights on the Big Lost 
River, suffering much discomfort and injury, 
but protecting themselves as well as possible 
by building a corral of their wagons, inside 
of which they dug a well to furnish water. 
The Indians were finally repulsed and they 
proceeded on their way to Salmon River, 
where Mr. Hanny found employment in a 
lumber mill. In the ensuing winter he car- 
ried the mail from Custer to Bonanza City, a 
most serious undertaking and encompassed 
with many difficulties, the snow being deep 
and treacherous and progress only being possi- 
ble on foot with snow shoes. While a resident 
of this place he assisted in drawing the first 
wagon ever attempted to be taken across the 
mountains to Bonanza. 

In the fall of 1881 Mr. Hanny returned to 
Provo Valley and remained there and at Park 
City until removing' to Fremont county, in the 
fall of 1887, at which time he located at his 
present residence, taking up a homestead of 



;68 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1 60 acres and at once commenced active op- 
erations in the construction of irrigation ca- 
nals to improve his property and in diversified 
farming. He was one of the first men to 
break ground in the making of irrigation ca- 
nals in this section of the country, and was one 
of the promoters and stockholders of the Fall 
River Irrigation Canal Co., in which he held 
the position of director for a long term of 
years. In connection with farming he also 
took charge of a fine ranch in his vicinity and 
engaged in cattleraising operations, running a 
fine herd of a superior breed. For eighteen 
months Mr. Hanny. in the employ of the 
county, maintained and cared for the unfortun- 
ate poor who were the wards of the county, 
being the first poormaster in Fremont county. 
Holding a position of decided standing in so- 
cial, business and society circles, Mr. Hanny is 
connected with the Mormon church, ever faith- 
fully attending to his long trusted office of 
elder, being honored and respected by the com- 
munity and a prominent factor in all of its 
useful activities. 

In 1889 Mr. Hanny was married with 
Miss Alice J. Hanmon, a native of Bear Lake 
county, Idaho, and a daughter of Levi and 
Polly C. (Bybee) Hanmon. her father being 
a native of Ohio who came to LTtah in the 
second ox-team emigration party. He settled 
at Bountiful, Utah, where he resided until 
making his home at Wilford, Idaho, where his 
death occurred in 1893, at the age of seventy- 
three years ; the mother died on August n, 
1902, at the patriarchal age of eighty-three 
years. 

CHARLES BIRD. 

Coming from ancestry of deep religious 
faith and marked religious principles, it fol- 
lows as a self-evident proposition that Charles 
Bird himself would be dominated by the same 
high ideals that gave color and strength to 



their fixed principles of belief and that he in 
his individuality would display the same hon- 
orable characteristics that won for them the 
lasting regard and esteem of every one who 
met them in the realms of social or religii »us 
life. Mr. Bird, now prominently connected 
with stockraising industries in the territory im- 
mediately surrounding Teton City, Fremont 
county, Idaho, was born in 1843. at Nauvoo, 
111., a son of Charles and Mary Ann (Ken- 
neal) Bird. The father was a native of Xew 
York, who, attracted by his devotion to the 
Mormon religion, became a resident of Xau- 
voo. thereafter removing to Council Bluffs, 
thence, in 1850, going "the plains across" with 
an ox-team caravan to Salt Lake City. After 
his arrival in Utah he located on South Cot- 
tonwood Creek, where he made his home for a 
period of eight vears, thereafter removing to 
Cache county and locating at Mendon, where 
occurred his death in 1884. at the venerable 
age of eighty-two vears, holding the place of 
one of the Seventies in the Mormon church. 
His faithful wife, also a native of the state 
of New York, loyally followed his various mi- 
grations and closed her earthly activities at 
Mendon in 1867. being the mother of thirteen 
children. 

Charles Bird, of this review, was seven 
years of age when he crossed the plains with 
his parents and retains a vivid memory of the 
unaccustomed scenes occurring on the way. 
His boyhood and youth were passed at Cache 
Valley. Utah, where he received the. rudiments 
of a solid education in the excellent schools, 
and by participation in the various, labors of 
husbandry there conducted, became fully com- 
petent to wrestle with, the problems of exist- 
ence in the conditions existing in this partially 
settled region of this portion of the land. 
Upon attaining the age of twenty-six years, 
in 1882, he, came to Teton, Idaho, being one 
of the pioneer settlers and. locating upon a 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



569 



homestead, he devoted himself with great ac- 
tivity and intelligence to its development. By 
diligent labor and careful attention he solved 
the problem of the irrigation of his property, 
becoming one of the representative men that 
had to do with the formation of irrigation ca- 
nals and the introduction of water into this 
territory and he has held the office of director 
of the Teton Irrigation Co., for fully ten years, 
and is also a director and officer of the Canyon 
Creek Irrigation Co. After three years of the 
development of his property it assumed such 
improvement that in 1885 he moved his fam- 
ily thither and here he has since maintained his 
home, during the first years devoting his time 
io diversified farming, but being engag-ed at 
present in the raising of fine cattle of superior 
breed and quality. A public-spirited man with 
great force of character, his influence has 
been largely felt in the building- up of the little 
village of Teton City, and his progressive 
methods have caused him to keep pace with the 
progress of the times. He is interested in and 
identified with the Republican party, aiding it 
most loyally by vote and influence, and in the 
Mormon church he is highly esteemed and 
holds the place of elder. 

In 1869 occurred the marriage of Mr. 
Bird, his wife being formerly a Miss Harriet 
Clifford, of Melville, Cache county, Utah, and 
a daughter of Elisha and Deborah Clifford, 
who started on the perilous road across the 
plains in 1852, the father dying on the road 
and the mother continuing on to Utah and 
becoming a resident of Brigham City. Later 
she removed to Cache Vallejr and thereafter 
became a resident of Menan City, Idaho, 
where her death occurred in 1900, she having 
attained the age of sixty-three years. Mr. 
and Mrs. Bird have nine children : Charles 
H.. Elisha, deceased, Mary, Deborah, Jede- 
diah, Harriet S., Julia, Arba M., Sarah J. and 
Tillman. Incidentally, in this connection, it is 



necessary to note that Mr. Bird assisted in the 
building of the Utah temple at Salt Lake City, 
hauling by far the largest load of rock that 
went into the structure of the edifice, its net 
weight being 9,330 pounds and it was drawn 
by an ox team. 

Mr. Bird for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury has had an interest in a threshing machine 
outfit, nearly all of the time giving his per- 
sonal services in connection therewith, and in 
operating the machine in 1866 he met with an 
unfortunate accident by which he lost one of 
his feet. To show his pioneer connection with 
the operation of threshing machines in this 
country, we will state that his father owned 
the second thresher ever brought to Utah, and 
the subject of this review, then a lad, assisted 
in the operation of this and also in that of the 
third one which- was brought to the territory. 

JONATHAN M. HANMON. 

Among the pioneers who by persistent in- 
dustry, perseverance and energy have laid the 
foundation of a cultured and religious civili- 
zation in the county of Fremont, Idaho, none 
are more worthy of a prominent place in a 
volume of this character ' than the intelligent 
gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He 
is a pioneer settler of the vicinity of Wilford 
and has been an energetic and prosperous 
farmer and stockman, his well-improved and 
fertile homestead being pleasantly located two 
miles northeast of the thriving town of Wil- 
ford, which is his postoffice address. 

Mr. Hanmon was born in 1862, at South 
Weber (now called Uinta), Utah, and he was 
a son of Lewis and Polly C. (Bybee) Hanmon. 
Attaining manhood with a robust and healthy 
constitution, he loyally devoted himself to the 
assistance of his mother after the death of 
the father, pursuing various lines of the stock 
business, and becoming thoroughlv versed in 



5/0 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the management and care necessary to the 
successful and prosperous raising of cattle and 
sheep. In 1886 he came to Idaho, then in the 
very primitive stages of its civilized occupancy, 
and located his present homestead, which pre- 
sented to his skilled judgment an opportunity 
for rapid and valuable development. Knowing 
that the sagebrush growth could be trans- 
formed into bounteous crops and cultivated 
tracts by a liberal use of water, he was early 
identified with and prominent in the forma- 
tion of the Wilford Irrigation Co. and the Fall 
River Irrigation Co., and has lived to witness 
the marked results of their successful opera- 
tions. Mr. Hanmon has enjoyed the confi- 
dence of his fellow citizens in a very marked 
degree, being considered not only a thrifty 
farmer and a shrewd business man, but also 
a man of probity and deep religious princi- 
ples. In political creed he is identified with 
the Democratic political party, and in the 
Mormon church he holds the position of elder, 
and for a period of two years he was the 
highly prized and useful president of the 
Young Men's Mutual Improvement .dissocia- 
tion. 

In 1895 Mr. Hanmon was married with 
Miss Lodema (Williams) Johnston. Mr. Han- 
man can be classed emphatically as a self-made 
man. for, commencing life with only his nat- 
ural resources for his capital, he has attained 
a fair degree of success and his career is an 
example which all young men possessing the 
same characteristics of sterling character and 
intelligent manhood can profitably follow. 

JAMES GARDNER. 

Prominent among the representative citi- 
zens of Fremont county, where he is now con- 
ducting mercantile operations of scope and im- 
portance in the thriving town of Teton City, 
Idaho. Tames Gardner, who is one of the old- 



timers of the West, an intelligent, enterpris- 
ing and successful man in business affairs, was 
born in 1828. in Gloucestershire, England, a 
son of John and Mary Gardner. The father, 
who was born in 1805, a son of William Gard- 
ner, for many years was captain of a canal 
boat in England, but, becoming connected with 
the Mormon church in 1853, he emigrated 
and made his home in Salt Lake City for a 
period of seven years, thence locating at Men- 
don in the Cache Valley of Utah, where he 
was engaged in the culture of the soil until 
his death, in 1880, at the age of seventy-five 
years. He was a loyal adherent to the Mor- 
mon church and a useful and unostentatious 
citizen, having many friends. The mother of 
the subject of this review died in the same 
year as did her husband, being also seventy-five 
years of age and the mother of ten children. 

James Gardner until he attained the age 
of twenty-eight years was closely identified 
with his father's pursuits, accompanying him 
on the canal and joining him on his emigra- 
tion to Salt Lake City. In 1856, accompanied 
by his wife and family, he crossed the plains 
as a member of one of the handcart brigades, 
drawing a cart containing four children, aided 
in this labor by his faithful wife, who pushed 
the cart. They arrived in Utah on the 9th of 
November and located in Salt Lake City, 
where they resided four years, then removing 
to Cache Valley. Here they engaged in hus- 
bandry with prosperous results following their 
industrious labor, at which they continued un- 
til 1885, when he located on his present place 
at Teton City. Fremont county, and has since 
been engaged in diversified occupations. He 
owns a fine city property, consisting of a lot 
and modern residence of attractive design, and 
a model building which contains his stock of 
goods, consisting of general merchandise, 
boots, shoes, clothing and all other articles de- 
manded by the place and period. Mr. Card- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



571 



ner has manifested rare business qualities, and 
as a merchant he has' won extensive patron- 
age by his fairness, his personal integrity and 
his courteous manners. A devoted member of 
the Mormon church, he spares no time or en- 
ergy in the interest of his faith, and as a high 
priest he faithfully fulfills his duties. In Eng- 
land, in 1858. occurred his marriage and the 
children are, Mary A., Agnes, Frederick. John, 
Henry, deceased, Elizabeth, deceased, Lester, 
Malvina, Brigham and Emma. In all the re- 
lations of life connected with the development 
of Fremont county Mr. Gardner holds a promi- 
nent place, devoting time and attention to the 
furtherance of every public matter of a local 
interest that he deems worthy of his approval, 
and occupies a position of prominence in the 
circles of his political associates. All in all, 
he is a sterling citizen of upright character 
who stands deservedly high in the esteem of 
the whole community. 

JAMES W. SIDDOWA.Y. 

The subject of this sketch is prominently 
identified with the industrial activities of scope 
and importance in connection with the manu- 
facturing of lumber in the Teton Basin, Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, where he has given the 
best of his energies and capable supervision to 
his mills, which are located in the immediate 
vicinity of Teton City, he being the senior 
partner of the prominent firm of Siddoway, 
Briggs & Co. The extent of his operations 
and the impress he is making upon the prog- 
ress of the county in public and private mat- 
ters of interest render him a most suitable sub- 
ject for recognition in this volume, which is 
especially devoted to the progressive men of 
the southern part of Idaho. Mr. Siddoway is 
a true son of the Great West, since- his birth < 
occurred at Salt Lake City in 1861, being a 
son of Robert and Emma (Jackson) Siddoway. 



The father was a native of England, emigrat- 
ing from Sutherlandshire and making his first 
American location in Pennsylvania in 1857 
and thereafter coming to Salt Lake City in 
i860, crossing the plains as a member of a 
handcart battalion, and after arriving in Utah, 
pursuing the trades of carpenter and bridge 
builder. He was a man of more than ordinary 
mechanical skill and mental powers who did 
effective service as a superintendent of bridge 
construction along the line of the Union Pacific 
Railroad, from Ogden to the Pacific coast, re- 
maining in the employment of that company 
for the long period of twenty years. During 
this time his home was maintained at Salt 
Lake City, where occurred his death in 1893, 
at the age of sixty-five years. He married, at 
Salt Lake City, with Miss Emma Jackson, also 
a native of England and a daughter of James 
Jackson, and she is still residing at Salt Lake 
City, at the age of sixty-five years, being the 
mother of nine children, of whom James is 
the eldest. 

Inheriting much of the mechanical skill and 
constructive ability possessed by his father, 
the subject of this review acquired an intimate 
acquaintance with the trade of his father dur- 
ing his minority, and in 1885, at the age of 
twenty-four years, came to Fremont county 
before its segregation from Bingham county, 
there taking up land, and in 1886 he engaged 
in lumbering in a comparatively small way 
upon Canyon Creek. Selling this in 1887, he 
located on the site of his present mill at Teton 
City, there erecting in 1892 both saw and 
flouring mills and forming an association with 
his partners, forming the present milling com- 
pany of Siddoway, Briggs & Co. in 1892, and 
under that firm name they are now conducting 
milling operations and are also engaged in 
merchandising at Teton City. His business 
endeavors are not confined to these industries, 
but he is conducting diversified farming in a 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



highly scientific manner and with rapidly in- 
creasing proportions. Energetic and public- 
spirited, he has taken a very prominent part in 
the subject of irrigation, being a director in 
three different companies and holding the of- 
fice of president. Sagacious and wise, as a po- 
litical leader he has exercised a potent influ- 
ence in the local politics of this section, and 
as a Silver Republican was elected by a very 
flattering vote to the office of county commis- 
sioner, and under his capable administration of 
the duties of that office the interests of the 
people were cared for in an eminently satis- 
factory degree. A man of pronounced reli- 
gious ideas and dominated by true piety, he 
holds the place of priest in the Mormon 
church, and by his strength of character, wise 
conservatism, as well as his progressive spirit, 
being a most prominent factor in the business, 
social, political and religious departments of 
the community, and having a large concourse 
of strong, personal friends, to whom the latch- 
string of his house is ever hanging out. 

In 1886. in Salt Lake City, were solemnized 
the rites of matrimony of Mr. Siddoway and 
Miss Ruth Eriggs, a native of Salt Lake City 
and a daughter of James and Caroline (Clark) 
Briggs, who came to Utah in 1858, and have 
since been prominent residents of Salt Lake 
City, where they still reside. To the marriage 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Siddoway have come 
these children, namely : Emma, Clarence, de- 
ceased. Frank, Kenneth, Edith. May and Ruth. 
Mr. Siddoway has attained a solid financial 
footing by his indefatigable personal attention 
and activity, and is thoroughly American in 
his thought and feeling, doing all in his power 
to promote the interests of the community, 
county and state, and possessing keen discrim- 
ination and sound judgment, while his execu- 
tive ability and excellent management have 
brought to the various industries with which he 
is connected a high degree of success. Im- 



bued with a genial nature, he has been f< ire- 
most in many worthy enterprises of a benevo- 
lent and charitable character and stands high 
in the community as a prominent and repre- 
sentative citizen of the best class of the peo- 
ple of the state in which he resides. 

ROBERT BIRCH. 

Another one of the native sons of Utah 
who has proven himself justly entitled to the 
distinction of' being called a representative 
man of the county in more ways than one. and 
who has given eminent service to the commun- 
ity by his connection with and development of 
irrigation canals, and also by the great inter- 
est which he has manifested in the cause of 
education, and by the public spirit he has dis- 
played in all general matters of interest of a 
local nature, being ever found a loyal citizen 
and an able business man, a strong friend and 
a prominent factor in every enterprise in which 
he has been engaged, Robert Birch, whose at- 
tractive ranch is located two miles south of 
St. Anthony, well deserves mention in this 
volume devoted to the perpetuation of the 
lives and activities of the early settlers and pro- 
gressive men of this section of the state. 

Mr. Birch was born in 1858. at Salt Lake 
City, a son of Richard and Ellen (Harris) 
Birch. His father, who was born in England, 
there attained manhood, entered into the mat- 
rimonial state and emigrated with his family 
to America, crossing the far-stretching plains 
with an ox team in one of the earliest Mor- 
mon caravans that made the journey to Salt 
Lake City. A few years thereafter he located 
in Summit county, and lie is still living at 
Coalville, at the age of seventy-eight years, 
and holding the position of patriarch in the 
Mormon .church. The grand father, William 
Birch, also emigrated from England to make 
his home in Utah, starting across the plains 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



573 



with one of the handcart companies, but not 
possessing sufficient vitality to endure the ex- 
posures and hardships of the journey, he did 
not survive his arrival, dying soon after the 
caravan reached Salt Lake City. The mother 
of Mr. Birch accompanied her husband from 
England with her two children, one of these 
dying on board the ship and being buried at 
sea, and after a life of useful industry and ac- 
tive benevolence she is still living, having at- 
tained the venerable age of eighty years and 
being the mother of eight children. With a 
faithful solicitude and loyalty, Robert Birch re- 
mained at the parental homestead at Coalville, 
Summit county, Utah, until attaining the age 
of twenty-two years, when he engaged in 
farming operations in Summit county and con- 
tinued prosperously in this occupation until 
1888, when, being desirous of securing some 
of the advantages that were then lying latent 
in that portion of Idaho now comprised within 
the limits of Fremont county, he came to his 
present location where he filed on a desert claim 
of 160 acres, and with all the force of his en- 
ergetic nature began its development, at the 
same time engaging in "the raising of stock, in 
which industry he has continued until the pres- 
ent time, having now under his brand large 
numbers of horses, cattle and hogs At the 
time of his arrival in this section the lack of 
water on the land precluded agriculture, arid 
Mr. Birch, in company with two of his broth- 
ers, gave inception to and developed the Twin 
Grove Canal Co., which has done most effect- 
ive service in the supplying of water, and of 
this company he held the office of president for 
a period of about twelve years. 

In 1883 were celebrated the marriage rites 
of Mr. Birch and Miss Sarah E. McMichael, 
a native of Utah and a daughter of William 
and Ursula (Brown) McMichael, who were 
emigrants from Ireland in the early days of 
the Mormon colonies of Utah, where they 



made their home at Coalville and the father 
still resides at a venerable age. Mr. and Mrs. 
Birch have a family of seven children, namely : 
William R., Ellen D., Robert B., Earl, Charles 
F., Reuben and Olive. The energy and ex- 
cellent business ability of Mr. Birch have not 
only gained for him an assured competence 
and an enviable reputation in the community, 
but he is a man of strong and positive political 
principles, and his services in connection with 
education and in forwarding the interests of 
the schools of his section have been justly rec- 
ognized by his continuance in the office of 
trustee for man}' terms. All in all, we may 
say that he is a man of strength, influence and 
warm sympathies, whose active and conspicu- 
ous cooperation can ever be secured for all 
secular and religious objects that show by 
their character that they are for the good of 
the community, while in the Mormon church 
he is holding the place of one of the Seventies. 

GEORGE A. PINCOCK. 

The history of civilization discloses but few 
such magnificent movements in the cause of 
religious freedom as that which has been con- 
ducted under the deep religious enthusiasm 
that has given strength and powers to the 
leaders of the Mormon church in their won- 
derful crusade against the barbaric regions of 
the Salt Lake country. There has been a 
power infinitely superior to all human powers 
which has been the guiding principle in the 
settlement of Utah and the surrounding terri- 
tory that renders religious allegiance to the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, and it is not 
too much to say that in the interests of no 
other people has there ever been displayed 
greater faith, more, self-abnegation, more he- 
roic courage or uncomplaining endurance than 
has been manifested in the development of 
civilization in this region bv the consistent, 



574 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



faithful and industrious followers of the in- 
spired leaders of the Mormon church. We 
are led to these reflections in considering the 
life and activities of Bishop George A. Pin- 
cock, now residing two and one-half miles west 
of Wilford postoffice, Fremont county, Idaho, 
as he is one of the representative sons of the 
church, who in temporal as in spiritual matters 
has ever been actuated by a deep religious prin- 
ciple, an unswerving integrity and a high sense 
of duty which has consecrated his endeavors 
to the welfare of his fellow men; and in def- 
erence to the church in treating of the repre- 
sentative men of southeastern Idaho it be- 
comes imperative to give Bishop Pincock 
proper recognition. 

Bishop George A. Pincock was born at Og- 
den, Utah, a son of John and Isabel (Douglas) 
Pincock. His father was a native of England 
who, when a lad, accompanied a sister to Utah 
in the early fifties, crossing the plains with a 
Mormon ox-team caravan and making his 
home, first in Davis county and later in Weber 
county, where the city of Ogden has been de- 
veloped and where he still maintains his home, 
at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, 
whom he married in Utah, has attained the 
age of sixty-nine years, being the daughter of 
John and Ellen (Briggs) Douglass, natives of 
England, where they were married. Casting 
in their lot with the Mormon church, they 
started on their way to the promised land of 
Utah, the father dying on the journey, but the 
mother surviving and settling with the church 
at Salt Lake City, thereafter moving to St. 
George, where she passed the remainder of 
her days, being the mother of fourteen chil- 
dren. 

Bishop Pincock passed his youth at Ogden, 
diligently availing himself of the advantages 
offered in the public schools, industriously la- 
boring at various occupations and remaining 
with his parents until attaining the age of 



twenty-two years, when, in the spring of [886, 
he commenced his independent business ca- 
reer by coming - to the Teton Basin, where he 
filed on a homestead claim which he has since 
developed to the present fertile and produc 
tive ranch of 160 acres, thereon engaging in 
farming and the raising of cattle, which latter 
branch of industry he has since exchanged for 
sheep. As water is the life of agriculture in 
. this section, irrigation must be the first step 
in the improvement of the land, and Bishop 
Pincock was an early agitator and prominent 
factor in securing the proper irrigation of this 
section of the country, by the introduction of 
water, benefiting not only his own estate but 
the whole community. He assisted in the or- 
ganization of two independent companies, the 
Pincock & Byington and the Pincock & Gar- 
ner Irrigation Canal Co.. holding in each one 
the offices of director and president. Politic- 
ally he is identified with the Democratic polit- 
ical party, but has made no effort for political 
advancement. From the formation of the 
Wilford ward he has held the honored place 
of its bishop, and in religious work he has also 
done faithful and successful service on a mis- 
sion of twenty-nine months in the state of 
Kentucky. 

In 1885 Bishop Pincock married with Lu- 
anda F, Bingham, a native of Utah and a 
daughter of Sanford and Martha A. (Lewis) 
Bingham, who came to Utah in 1847 among 
the earliest of the early pioneers and passed 
their lives in a quiet, unostentatious manner at 
Riverdale, Weber county, Utah, where the fa- 
ther is still living. By this union Bishop Pin- 
cock has the following children : Martha J.. 
Lottie M.. Lucinda E., George S.. William. 
Albert. Jane and Douglass. Spiritual life is 
not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant 
in the soul, and thus it comes that Bishop Pin- 
cock. while giving great attention to the tem- 
poral affairs of life and doing well his duties in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



575 



political and social relations, is also in pos- 
session of that higher force that makes the per- 
petual well-being" of humanity the principal 
work of its possessor. 

REUBEN ROW. 

In making up the grand composite of in- 
dividuals that compose the civilized popula- 
tion of the Rocky Mountain section of the 
Great West of America, many are the nations 
that have contributed to the diverse materials 
which constitute the mosaic, and not the least 
of the givers in the way of brave, industrious 
and courteous individuals has been the Do- 
minion of Canada, which has sent countless 
numbers of her sons to aid in the development 
of this section of the country, and in the per- 
son of Reuben Row, whose finely situated 
ranch is located in the Teton Basin, two and 
one-quarter miles southwest of Teton post- 
office, we find one of this number, being a rep- 
resentative ranchman and a man of energy 
and thrift, bright mechanical powers and un- 
ceasing industry. 

Mr. Row was born on November 4, 1856, 
in Canada, a son of Charles and Margaret 
(Henderson) Row, and his father is now re- 
siding in the province of Ontario, living re- 
tired at the hale old ag"e of eighty-eight years, 
having industriously followed the carpenter's 
trade during his active life. The paternal 
grandfather, Reuben Row. was also born in 
Canada, passing his entire life in the province 
of Ontario as a farmer; while the mother of 
Mr. Row, who is a daughter of Ezekiel and 
Leah Henderson, is still living at the age of 
eighty-seven years, having been the mother of 
fourteen children. 

Reuben Row, the subject of this review, in 
the excellent schools of Ontario received the 
solid foundation of an education which he has 
since repleted by those two great teachers, ob- 



servation and experience, and while attaining" 
his early scholastic knowledge he was employed 
at various occupations, being brought up to 
believe that idleness was a sin. At the age of 
twenty-two years he became connected with 
railroad operations, which led him! to Ne- 
braska, where he remained for a period of 
seven years, thence to Wyoming where his en- 
deavors were given to constructing bridges on 
the Union Pacific Railroad. From thence he 
went to Montana and in that state he found 
employment at carpentry for the Anaconda 
Co. for the period of fifteen years. Before go- 
ing to Montana Mr. Row, in 1880, had located 
a timber claim which included his present place 
of 160 acres, and during his residence in Mon- 
tana he made frequent visits to Idaho to make 
the necessary improvements on this farm to 
perfect his title. In 1889 he made his per- 
manent home on this place and engaged in di- 
versified farming and stockraising, being pros- 
pered in his undertakings and being consid- 
ered one of the foremost stockraisers of this 
portion of the basin. In connection with his 
stock operations he has devoted much of his 
time to the interest of public improvements in 
the county by erecting a large number of 
bridges on the public roads. It is not too 
much to say that Mr. Row has attained a grati- 
fying financial position, and that by his earn- 
est endeavors, his industry and his intelligent 
care and discrimination he is fully entitled to 
his success. 

In 1886, at Anaconda, Mont., the marriage 
ceremony was performed which made Miss 
Leonora Webster the subject's wife. She was 
a native of Ogden, Utah, and a daughter of 
Thomas and Ellen (Blake) Webster, natives 
respectively of England and Ireland, and she 
was reared and educated in Wyoming. Her 
parents came to Utah in 1870 and first set- 
tled at Ogden, Utah, afterwards making' their 
permanent home in Wyoming, where the fa- 



576 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ther died at Hillyard. The mother removed to 
Anaconda, Mont, where she still maintains 
her home, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mr. 
and Mrs. Row had four children, Ezra, 
who died at Anaconda, William, Vivian and 
Leonora. In political matters Mr. Row is 
deeply interested, and has an intelligent grasp 
on all public matters, not only general but lo- 
cal, and is profoundly interested in all inter- 
ests calculated to improve the community, the 
county and the state. Being a public-spirited 
citizen, he is held in high esteem by his large 
circle of personal friends. 

JOHN RICHMAN. 

Born in Lincolnshire, England, a son of 
Matthew and Elizabeth (Eoog) Richman, John 
Richman, now a representative farmer in the 
vicinity of Teton City, Fremont county. Idahi i, 
has experienced many varieties of existence 
in different climes and countries and is now- 
enjoying the results of a life that has been 
made conspicuously useful by integrity of 
character, earnestness of purpose, diligence in 
labor and honesty in dealing. The father of 
Mr. Richman in the later years of his life came 
from Maryland, joining the emigration of his 
Mormon friends in i860 from England, but 
was not spared to see the promised land, as 
lie died at Florence, Neb., while crossing the 
plains to Utah, being then at the age of sixty- 
two years. His faithful wife, who had come 
with him from England, died in the state of 
Maryland in 1855. and for many generations 
the branches of the family ancestral tree are 
connected with English soil. 

The subject of this review came to the 
United States from England in i860, joining 
his relatives in Maryland, where he tarried for 
a period of one year and nine months, his 
destination originally having been Utah, and 
being accompanied by bis wife and two chil- 



dren. From Maryland, in 1862. the party pro- 
ceeded to Philadelphia and from there t<> Flor- 
ence, Neb., by rail, and then over the long in- 
tervening distance separating them from Utah 
they traveled with ox teams, ultimately arriv- 
ing at Paradise, in Cache Valley, on October 
21, 1861. Here they resided, diligently con- 
ducting various offices of husbandry, until re- 
moving, in 1884, to Teton county, where Mr. 
Richman took up pre-emption homestead 
claims on the site of his present home. From 
that time he has been engaged in diversified 
farming and kindred pursuits, and attending 
to the development of his property, which con- 
sists of a fine tract of 152 acres of fertile land 
which responds most liberallv to the touch of 
the husbandman after it is supplied with water. 
In the securing of this he has aided greatly in 
the development of this section of the coun- 
try, being prominently concerned with irriga- 
tion matters and holding a leading position in 
connection with the various irrigation com- 
panies. A loyal member of the Mormon 
church, he has held the position of high priest 
with great ability and acceptability. The 
maiden name of his wife was Sarah Ann 
Stephenson, a native of England and a daugh- 
ter of Simeon Stephenson, who passed his en- 
tire life in bis native land. Mrs. Stephenson 
crossed the dark river of death at Teton in 
1888, having been the mother of the follow- 
ing children: Hyrum. Elizabeth, Sarah A., 
deceased, and Mary E.. deceased. Standing 
now near the close of a quiet, unostentatious 
but very useful life. Mr. Richman has the satis- 
faction of knowing that the world has been 
made better by his living and that he is sur- 
rounded by a circle of descendants and loyal 
personal friends who do him reverence, and 
that his mission in life has been one of produc- 
tiveness, while in the years that are to come 
he can look back with pleasant recollections 
and forward to the hope of immortality. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



577 



G. W. HAWS. 

Born in 1841, in Wayne county, 111., a 
son of Gilbert and Hannah (Whitcomb) Haws, 
the subject of this review descends from one 
of the best families of the South, his father 
emigrating from his native state of Kentucky 
to Illinois when a child, accompanying the 
family party on a pack mule, and there he at- 
tained manhood and was industriously engaged 
in agricultural pursuits, being a most useful 
citizen and of deeply religious principles. The 
teaching of the Mormon church appealed to 
him so strongly that when his son George was 
but six years of age, in 1847, the family resi- 
dence was removed to Utah, and in going 
thither they crossed the plains with an ox- 
team caravan. They were not disturbed on 
their journey by hostile Indians or unforeseen 
difficulties, arriving in sight of Salt Lake City 
in 1849, with the first wagon train that went 
to Utah Valley. Thereafter they removed to 
Provo, where the father's death occurred in 
1877, at the age of seventy-six years. The 
mother, who was a native of New York, came 
in early childhood to Illinois, where she was 
married, thereafter accompanying her husband 
and family across the plains and living a use- 
ful, diligent and religious life, winning the Jove 
and esteem of her large family of children and 
an extensive range of acquaintances, and dy- 
ing in 1888, at the age of seventy-five years. 
She was the daughter of Oliver and Olive 
Whitcomb, natives of New York state and la- 
ter residents of Ohio and Illinois, she being 
-also the mother of fourteen children. 

Mr. Haws, of this review, although very 
young when crossing the plains with his par- 
ents, retains most vivid memories of the inci- 
dents and occurrences met with on the way. 
On arriving at Provo he entered most heartily 
into the new life of the West, and devoted his 
time and energies to the familv interests on 



the homestead farm until his marriage, in 
1 86 1, when he made his home in Juab county, 
Utah. There for thirteen years he gave unin- 
terrupted attention to agricultural pursuits, 
from there returning to Provo, where he was 
connected with railroad operations for three 
years. In 1884 the advantages of this section 
of Fremont county and the Teton Basin in 
Idaho so attracted him that he there took up 
a homestead of 1G0 acres on which he has 
since made his home and by his diligent atten- 
tion and careful labors he has wonderfully 
transformed it from its original sagebrush con- 
dition until now it presents fine fields which 
yield bounteous crops under his judicious 
farming and is the center of an extensive stock 
industry. Mr. Haws took a very prominent 
part in the earl}' irrigation matters, assisting 
in forming the Teton Irrigation and Manufac- 
turing Ditch Co., in which he was a director 
and held the position of president. In politics 
he is identified with the Republican party, but 
although interested in its success, principles 
and policies, he has never presented himself as 
a candidate for any political place or position 
in the gift of the party. Aside from secular 
matters his energies have been given almost 
entirely to the church, in which he is holding 
the position of elder and is venerated and be- 
loved. 

In 1861 Mr. Haws wedded Miss Elizabeth 
A. Worsley, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and 
a daughter of John and Sarah (Homer) Wors- 
ley. After the father's death, at St. Louis, 
the mother crossed the plains to Utah and 
after a life of industrious and useful activities 
passed away from earth at Provo, Utah. Mrs. 
Haws closed her earthly activities in 1890, and 
was buried at Teton cemetery, being the 
mother of twelve children: George J., Elmy. 
deceased, Charles H.. Mary J., Tilda, de- 
ceased at the age of nineteen years. Electa. 
Edwin, deceased, Erwin, Matilda, Courtland. 



;>/< 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Effie M. and Elzina V. In 189 1 occurred the 
second marriage of Mr. Haws, when Miss 
Eliza Scoville, a native of Nanvoo, 111., and 
daughter of Lucas Scoville. became his wife. 
Her parents were early settlers of Utah in 
1850. the father long surviving his wife and 
dying at Springfield, Utah. Incidentally, in 
connection with the other useful services Mr. 
Haws has rendered the community, we will 
mention that he is an honored veteran of the 
Black Hawk war, in which he held the com- 
mission of lieutenant, and he was a member of 
the minute-men of Provo for a long term of 
years, and during the early pioneer days was 
a brave, determined and intelligent soldier. 

WILLIAM A. WALKER. 

The interesting subject of this review is 
one whose history and associations touch not 
only vital matters of the pioneer epoch, but 
also those of great historic importance and 
character, since his parents were intimately as- 
sociated with and a part of that greatest emi- 
gration movement of modern times, that of 
the settlement of Utah. His life forms a part 
of that indissoluble chain which links the early 
formative period with that of latter-day prog- 
ress and prosperity. Not alone is there par- 
ticular interest attaching to his career as one 
of the pioneers of the great intermountain re- 
gion, but along the line of his services and ac- 
tivities in Idaho must our investigations pro- 
ceed if we would learn of the intelligent, 
steadfast and uncompromising mental opera- 
tions that constitute the basis upon which has 
been reared the magnificent structure of this 
great commonwealth. 

William Adelbert Walker was born in Salt 
Lake City. Utah, on November 5, 1859. as a 
son of William H. and Mary J. (Shadding) 
Walker, natives respectively of Vermont and 
Pennsylvania. The father, born on August 



28, 1820, was reared until he was ten years 
of age on his father's farm in his native state, 
in 1830 removing westward with his parents 
along the track of the migrations of the Mor- 
mon church, which they joined, and ultimately 
arriving with them at Nauvoo, 111., where was 
his home until 1846, when he was called to 
enter the military service of the United States 
as a member of the famous Mormon brigade. 
He shared the well-known sufferings of that 
organization until his term of service therein 
was terminated by his discharge at Pueblo. 
From the time he was twelve years of age un- 
til his marriage with Miss Mary J. Shadding. 
with the exception of the military experience 
heretofore spoken of, Mr. Walker was in the 
direct employment of the Prophet Joseph 
Smith, his brother-in-law through the mar- 
riage of the prophet with his sister, Lucy 
Walker. And in this connection it is worthy 
of mention that this venerable lady is at the 
present writing residing at Salt Lake City, 
having accomplished seventy-eight years of 
useful existence. After the death of Joseph 
Smith she married with the celebrated Heber 
C. Kimball, whom she also survived. The 
marriage of William H. Walker occurred at 
Nauvoo, and his wife drove the ox team carry- 
ing the few articles of family possessions al- 
lowed to be taken along the emigrant trail to 
Utah, her husband joining her in the moun- 
tains after his muster-out at Pueblo. For fur- 
ther information of these worthy people the 
reader mav consult the memoir of William H. 
Walker, of Lewisville. appearing elsewhere in 
this volume. 

In the schools of Salt Lake City William 
A. Walker acquired the rudiments of his edu- 
cation, continuing in his attendance there dur- 
ing the winter terms until he was twenty 
vears of age, supplementing and completing 
this instruction in the University of Utah un- 
der the competent tutelage of the noted Dr. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



579 



Park. In 1S83 he took an examination in the 
normal department, received a certificate and 
thereafter successfully taught one winter term 
of school. His temperament was too active to 
allow him to devote himself fully to teaching, 
and after leaving school he engaged in farming 
at Big Cottonwood, following this the next 
year by teaching. This contract fulfilled, he 
again engaged in farming, purchasing the im- 
provements on eighty acres of land at Leam- 
ington, Utah, which he further improved, 
proved up on and sold in 1884 to William Mc- 
Intyre, of Salt Lake City. Soon after this 
sale and in the same year Mr. Walker came to 
Idaho and made his home at Lewisville, where 
he established the first general store of the 
valley north of Idaho Falls, pre-empted 160 
acres and "desert-claimed" 240 acres, and with 
commendable energy in connection with his 
merchandising set about the work of its im- 
provement. In 1886 he secured the establish- 
ment of the Lewisville postoffice and was its 
postmaster until 1890. In 1892, having sold 
his store and trade interests to B. F. Hake, 
he exchanged his land for 160 acres adjoining 
the village of Rexburg, acquiring also in the 
exchange one town lot in Rexburg, formerly 
the property of President Ricks, on which was 
standing the first house built in the town. 
This house, which has improved and enlarged 
by the addition of a frame building of three 
rooms, is now the residence of Mr. Walker. 

In 189 1 Mr. Walker was called to serve 
on mission work for his church in Illinois, 
Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska, but, 
after fourteen months of acceptable service, he 
was forced to return home by reason of greatly 
impaired health. He then once more devoted 
his attention to agriculture, becoming known 
as an authority on crops and their culture in 
this remarkable valley, his sound and practical 
judgment and discriminating observation being 



large factors in establishing his reputation in 
this line. When the Farmers' Union, which 
handled and shipped all of the produce of the 
Upper Valley of the Snake River from 1891 
to 1894, was organized he was almost unani- 
mously chosen as its manager and creditably 
performed the arduous duties 'of that position. 
From 1894 he has been an extensive private 
shipper of grain and potatoes annually during 
the fall and winter seasons. In March, 1902, 
he was engaged by the Studebaker Bros. Co., 
of Utah, to act as their manager for the terri- 
tory adjacent to Rigby, Rexburg, St. An- 
thony and Lewisville, his labors being so satis- 
factory that in November, 1903, he was made 
their permanent manager, with offices at Rex- 
burg. In the business circles of the state he 
stands high as an upright, conscientious man 
of sterling integrity and universal popularity. 

Mr. Walker has ever been allied with the 
Republican political party and an active 
worker in its campaigns. In 1894 he was 
nominated by his party as its candidate for 
member of the lower house of the state Legis- 
lature, and after a heated campaign was suc- 
cessful at the polls and enjoys the rare dis- 
tinction of being the first member of his reli- 
gious organization to hold a seat in that body. 
Here, as a Mormon, he attracted much atten- 
tion, and by his wisdom and practical com- 
mon-sense he did much excellent work for his 
party, his church and his constituents. Very 
largely through his personal efforts was accom- 
plished the repeal of the odious "test oath" law, 
and after the signing of the repealing bill by 
the governor, Mr. Walker was presented with 
the pen that made the bill a law and he now 
holds it as one of the highest prized of many 
souvenirs in his possession. In 1895, as a 
delegate to the Irrigation Congress, he also 
accomplished work of value to the state. 

At Salt Lake City, on April 14, 1881, un- 



5 8o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



der the consecration of President Joseph F. 
Smith, occurred the marriage rites of Mr. 
Walker and Miss Lavina Harper, a daughter 
of Charles A. and Lavina (Dilworth) Harper, 
natives of Pennsylvania. The father, born in 
1817, died in 1901, was one of the famous 
band of 145 pioneers that broke ground at 
Salt Lake for the settlement of Utah, an ac- 
count of which is displayed upon the granite 
sides of the Brigham Young monument. The 
mother's birth took place on November 5, 
1819, and her death on July 10, 1903, at Salt 
Lake City, where she lies buried. Their ten 
daughters and one son have ever been promi- 
nent in church work and occupy a high rank 
in the citizenship of Utah. Mr. Walker has 
the following children: William A., Jr., born 
at Big Cottonwood, Utah, on January 4, 1882 ; 
Chester B., now on a mission to Kansas, born 
at Big Cottonwood on May 17, 1884; Charles 
E., born at Lewisville, Idaho (as were all the 
younger children except Rudgar), on February 
8, 1886; Walter, born on August 28, 1888; 
Lavina, born July 5, 1890: Dilworth, born 
June 5, 1892; Viola, now deceased, born June 
25, 1896; Mabel M., born May 25. 1897. and 
Rudgar, who was born at Rexburg on August 
20, 1892. 

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints Mr. Walker has a well-earned 
prominence. He was ordained as a Seventy in 
1877, as an elder in 1881, as a high priest in 
1882, by Wilfred Woodruff, the president of 
the church; in 1882, also, he became first coun- 
sellor to Bishop August Neilson, of Leaming- 
ton, Utah, and in 1884 he was chosen second 
counsellor to Bishop R. F. Jardine, of Lewis- 
ville; in 1900 he was advanced to be the first 
counsellor of the same bishop, holding this 
office until 1902. Beside these positions he 
was the senior teacher of the theological class 
at Lewisville from 1885 to 1902. 



EBBE PETERSON. 

The first owner of the site of the town of 
Shelley, and well and favorably known to the 
best citizens of a large section of conntry as 
one of the best specimens of the old-time pros- 
pectors and pioneers, Ebbe Peterson is a man 
of strong traits of character and great physi- 
cal endurance and ability. He has had an 
eventful and active life in many and widely 
varying spheres of activity, being now one of 
the oldest residents of this section of the state, 
and stands high in popular esteem for his 
sound judgment and possession of many ele- 
ments of good citizenship. 

Mr. Peterson was born on December 21, 
1847, at Olan, Sweden, a son of Peter and 
Katrina (Svenson) Peterson, both parents be- 
ing representative of old families of their na- 
tive land, their family trees rooting in that 
soil for many hundreds of years. Ebbe had 
the excellent advantages of the government 
schools of Sweden until he was fifteen years 
old, thereafter working on the paternal farm 
and later going to sea as a sailor before the 
mast. He thus engaged until he was twenty- 
two years old, when, in 1869, he emigrated, 
coming to America, landing at Quebec. Can- 
ada, thence by sail coming to Chicago, and, 
after two months passed in that city, going to 
the copper mines of Lake Superior, where he 
was employed for three years. Thence re- 
moving to California, for two productive and 
very industrious years he conducted quartz- 
mining operations at Modoc, Darwin, Inde- 
pendence and Monmouth, in the spring of 
1879 returning eastward and stopping at Cus- 
ter, Idaho, from which place as headquarters 
he prospected and mined in the surrounding 
mountains and gulches for ten years, in the 
meantime-, however, taking a prospecting trip 
into Mexico, Arizona and California. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



58i 



In 1885 Mr. Peterson gratified a strong 
desire to visit his native land, after a year of 
pleasant recreation returning to Idaho and lo- 
cating a homestead of 160 acres and filing on 
a timber claim of the same area, at Shelley, 
the greater part of which he now owns, hav- 
ing largely developed and improved it, bring- 
ing it under highly successful cultivation. Al- 
ways interested in all shrewd business open- 
ings and matters of public improvement, he 
was one of the prime movers in the construc- 
tion of the Snake River Valley Irrigation Ca- 
nal, and also of the Cedar Point Irrigation Ca- 
nal, in both being a large stockholder and giv- 
ing his services as a director many times in 
both companies. He sold the townsite of Shel- 
ley before this thriving town was platted, and 
was one of the earliest locators on the reser- 
vation, holding' also promising mining claims 
in Custer county. He has an interest in the 
dredge company, organized to operate on 
Snake River, by digging up the sand and by 
chemical and other processes recovering the 
gold so thickly scattered therein. This process 
works splendidly in theory, but as yet has not 
given satisfactory practical results. A Re- 
publican in political affiliations, fraternally 
Mr. Peterson is an Odd Fellow, while his reli- 
gious connections are with the Lutheran 
church. He has never assumed matrimonial 
relations. 

CHARLES H. WOODMANSEE. 

Commanding universal confidence and es- 
teem, there is no man in all the extent of south- 
eastern Idaho who occupies a more enviable 
position in industrial and social circles than 
does Charles H. Woodmansee. the president 
of the Rexburg Banking Co., not alone on ac- 
count of the exceptional financial success which 
he has achieved, but for the honorable, straight- 
forward business policy he has ever pursued. 



He possesses untiring energy, is quick of per- 
ception, forms his plans readily and is deter- 
mined in their execution, so that on this score 
his marked success in connection with indus- 
trial and financial enterprises of wide scope 
and importance may be taken as a natural re- 
sult. But far above these is the firmness of 
purpose, integrity of character and fidelity to 
trusts which have ever gained for him the re- 
spect and esteem of all with whom he has been 
associated in business or met in social or polit- 
ical life. His residence in Idaho, of which he 
may be justly designated as a pioneer, goes 
back to the year 1888, the dawn of civilization 
in the wild land of this section. 

Mr. Woodmansee was born in 1867, at Og- 
den, Utah, a son of Charles and Harriet E. 
(Porter) Woodmansee, the father being a na- 
tive of Ohio, attaining manhood, however, in 
Iowa and joining the Mormon emigration to 
Utah in the early fifties, crossing the plains 
with an ox-team caravan, settling first at Salt 
Lake City. Thereafter, in 1865, he became 
identified with mercantile and real-estate oper- 
ations for the period of twelve years, and was 
prominent in Democratic politics, although not 
an officeseeker for himself at an}' time or un- 
der any conditions. At the age of sixty-six 
years, in 1894, this worthy pioneer closed his 
e3'es in death at his home in Ogden. 

The paternal grandparents of Mr. Wood- 
mansee were James and Sarah (Tyrrell) Wood- 
mansee, natives of Ohio, who, however, passed 
nearly all of their lives in the vicinity of Bur- 
lington, Iowa. The mother of Mr. Wood- 
mansee was a daughter of Abraham and Mar- 
cia (Bisbee) Porter, natives and long-time resi- 
dents of New York, whence they emigrated to 
Utah in the early fifties, locating first at Salt 
Lake City, and in 1865 removing to Ojgden, 
where the mother is still living, at the age of 
fifty-four years, and being the mother of ten 
children. 



5«2 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Charles H. Woodmansee attended the ex- 
cellent public schools of Ogden, there acquiring 
his education and attaining his manhood, be- 
ing engaged in various occupations until 1888, 
when he became a resident of Fremont county. 
Idaho, where he purchased a tract of 160 acres 
of land finely located on Moody Creek and en- 
gaged in ranching and stockraising, paying 
special attention to superior breeds of cattle 
and sheep, in both of which lines he was in 
possession of extensive herds. Year by year 
he has added to his possessions until he is now 
the owner of a fine landed estate of over 
1,000 acres, which is amply irrigated by the 
splendid water system which he owns. For 
quite a number of years he gave his attention 
almost entirely to his extensive stock opera- 
tions, but later he became a resident of Rex- 
burg, since which time he has contributed in 
no small degree to the advancement and pros- 
perity of the city, being identified with many 
of its leading enterprises, owning valuable real- 
estate within its limits, one of the principal 
business blocks of the city being erected by 
him and bearing his name. 

Mr. Woodmansee is very progressive and 
enterprising, and his record proves the flexi- 
bility of American manhood and demonstrates 
that pluck, perseverance and business capacity 
can in this country command the favors of 
fortune and win success. His capability for 
shrewdly conducting financial affairs has 
brought him into prominent notice among 
financial circles and his merits have been rec- 
ognized in his election to the prominent and 
responsible position of president of the Rex- 
burg Banking Co., of which he is now the in- 
cumbent. By his careful discrimination and 
keen judgment of finances and the conditions 
inherent thereto, he has given great satisfac- 
tion to the directorate and stands high in the 
esteem of the patrons of the bank. He is also 



a director of the Pittsburg Meat and Produce 
Co., of Rexburg, and is intensely interested 
in the cause of education, being a member of 
the town school board of Rexburg and a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees of Ricks Academy, 
by his deliberate judgment and bright com- 
mon-sense giving admirable service in both 
these stations. Mr. Woodmansee is strongly 
Democratic in politics and greatly interested in 
the success of its principles and campaigns, 
but he has modestly and steadily refused to 
accept any candidacy or appointment to polit- 
ical place or honor. He is known not only as 
a progressive business man who enjoys both 
personal and business popularity, but as a 
leader in the community in all measures and 
movements which tend to the uplifting of the 
people in both temporal and spiritual affairs, 
being the second counsellor to President Bas- 
sett of the Church of Latter Day Saints. 

Tn 1887. at Ogden, Utah. Miss Violet Pin- 
cock, a daughter of John and Isabella (Doug- 
lass) Pincock, a native of Ogden, Utah, be- 
came the wife of Mr. Woodmansee and to this 
union have come eight children, Grace. Ray- 
mond. Clyde. Glenn, Harvey and Henry. 
twins. Pearl, deceased, and Ethel, deceased. 
Probably no man in the county is more exten- 
sively or better known than the subject of this 
review. Energetic, prompt and always reli- 
able, he has been prospered largely in his un- 
dertakings and attributes his success to his 
good habits and his strict and careful attention 
to the proper discharge of the duties, social, 
civil or religious, that have devolved upon him. 
His practical and executive abilities are largely 
developed and his capacity for the facile and 
accurate handling of financial matters and 
business detail makes him a specially able offi- 
cial in the present incumbency of president of 
one of the leading banks of the county. Im- 
bued and animated by high intellectual, moral 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



583 



and religious ideals, he well merits consider- 
ation as one of the representative citizens of 
this important portion of the vigorous com- 
monwealth of Idaho. 

MILTON M. HAMMOND. 

Standing in the front ranks of the repre- 
sentative men of Fremont county, Idaho, 
where he is prominently connected with the 
various activities that are conducted in this 
section of the West, and holding with con- 
ceded ability the office of county assessor of 
Fremont county, Milton M. Hammond, the 
subject of this review, is entitled to more than 
a mere mention in any work purporting to 
treat of the progressive men of this section of 
the state. He was born in 1855, at Farming- 
ton, Utah, being a son of Judge M. D. and 
Louisa (Miller) Hammond. 

If there be anything in the doctrine of 
heredity it is plainly evident that Mr. Ham- 
mond should possess most sterling traits of 
character as well as mental ability of a high 
order, since on the paternal side his ancestry 
traces back through several generations on 
American soil to the Continental days of the 
Massachusetts colony, in each generation of 
which members of the family have held con- 
spicuous and distinguished stations in social, 
business and religious life, and the family has 
been for many generations noted in the his- 
tory of England and Scotland, oftentimes 
holding responsible military and civil positions. 
The father of Mr. Hammond, however, was 
born in Michigan in the vicinity of Mason, and 
after attaining manhood his patriotism led him 
to join the United States forces which accom- 
panied Generals Scott and Taylor in the war 
with Mexico. Thereafter he acquired the dis- 
tinguished title of a "forty-niner" of Califor- 
nia, being among the earliest of those gold- 
seekers, while in the fall of the same year he 



came to Utah, where his first vocation was 
teaching. Thereafter he became connected 
with agricultural pursuits and later became a 
hardware merchant in Ogden, where he con- 
tinued in trade for a number of years. Follow- 
ing this he pursued the same business in Lo- 
gan for a time, then, in recognition of his serv- 
ices as a Republican, he was nominated and 
elected as the probate judge of the county, 
holding that office for the term of eight years 
and showing judicious administrative powers 
of a high order. In this connection we will 
mention that he was a successful contractor in 
railroad construction for quite a long period 
of time,' among- other contracts holding one 
for grading 150 miles on the Denver & Rio 
Grande Railroad, with others on the Northern 
Pacific and the Canadian Pacific, which were 
promptly, thoroughly and profitably per- 
formed. His associates in the Mormon church 
gave due appreciation of his administrative 
ability and he has held the office of president 
of the Cache stake and also has been bishop at 
Providence, Utah. In the closing years of a 
very useful life, he is now residing at Logan, 
Utah. 

The paternal grandfather of Mr. Ham- 
mond was Nathaniel Hammond, a native of 
New York state, afterwards a pioneer farmer 
in Michigan, and he also* was one of the argo- 
nauts who crossed the plains to the gold fields 
of California in 1849, where he made his home 
for quite a period of time, returning in his 
later years to Utah, where his death occurred 
at an advanced age. The mother of the sub- 
ject, who was a native of Illinois and a daugh- 
ter of Daniel and Laura (Pond) Miller, died 
about 1885, at Providence, Utah, at the age 
of forty-five years. Of her eleven children the 
subject of this review was the eldest and all 
are now living save one. 

Mr. Hammond received his preliminary 
educational trainingf in the excellent schools at 



584 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Logan, Utah, and from its high school he was 
graduated with a high standing. His first in- 
dividual work for himself was as a contractor 
on the R. O. R. N., which he secured immedi- 
ately on attaining his majority ; and he was 
also further connected with railroad opera- 
tions, being a contractor on the Atlantic & Pa- 
cific Railroad, the Denver & Rio Grande and 
on the Canadian Pacific from Lake Superior 
to the Pacific coast and on the Elk Horn & 
Missouri Valley Railroad through Nebraska, 
also on the Seattle & Northern from the Mon- 
tana line to Seattle, his operations being of 
great scope and importance and occupying his 
entire attention for the period of fifteen years. 
He later, in 1892, settled on a farm at Marys- 
ville. Fremont county, Idaho, where he has 
been extensively engaged in fanning and 
stnckraising. In 1900 he received a most flat- 
tering vote and majority in his candidacy on 
the Democratic ticket for county assessor, the 
duties of which office he is now performing to 
the universal satisfaction of his constituents. 
His administrative qualities were earlv recog- 
nized by the Mormon church, of which he is 
a consistent and most useful member, and at 
the age of twenty-two years he received the 
appointment of bishop of Providence. Utah, 
and later that of bishop of Marysville. Im- 
mediately upon his election as county assessor, 
that he might properly attend to the duties 
of that office, he removed his residence to St. 
Anthony, where he is now one of the leading 
citizens and a public-spirited official whose 
ability and integrity is recognized by the 
whole community. 

In 1876 Mr. Hammond was united in mat- 
rimony with Sarah Thornton, a native of San 
Bernardino. Calif., and a daughter of Jasper 
and Sarah (Dunn) Thornton, her father be- 
ing one of the earliest settlers of California, 
dating his advent there in the earliest davs of 
the gold excitement, and there he was identi- 



fied with successful mining operations, later 
removing to Utah, where he died. In 1887 oc- 
curred the death of Mrs. Hammond, who 
passed away at the age of thirty-one years, 
being the mother of five children. Milton J., 
Cora E., Jasper M., Daniel R. and Mary. 

In 1886 Mr. Hammond formed a second 
marriage, being then wedded with Miss Eliza 
B. Tibbets, a native of Providence. Utah, and 

a daughter of Benjamin and Eliza (M ly) 

Tibbets. her parents being numbered among 
the pioneer settlers of the little pioneer city of 
her birth. To this second marriage have come 
four children, Lewis T., Robert, Iris and Lou- 
isa. In all the relations of social, civil and re- 
ligious associations Mr. Hammond is a pleas- 
ant companion and effective worker, standing 
high in the regard of a large circle of friends 
and acquaintances with whom he is extremely 
popular and his home is a center of assured 
and appreciated hospitality. 

JOSIAS R. YOUNG. 

It is a long cry to the beautiful island of 
Guernsey, lying in the English Channel, not 
far from the coast of France, "a land of life. 
light and flowers," but to this favored spot 
we must turn if we would see the land that 
gave birth to the subject of this review. Josias 
R. Young, who is now an industrious farmer 
in the vicinity of Rudy, Fremont county. 
Idaho. He was the son of Josias R. and Eliz- 
abeth (Canova) Young and the date of his 
birth was June 27, 1852. being one of a family 
of thirteen children born to his parents, who 
in 1855 came to the United States and to Utah 
in pursuance of their desire to obtain fuller 
benefits of religious privileges. Thev crossed 
the plains with ox teams and on their arrival 
in Utah settled at Provo. and in [858 or 1859 
moved to Cedar Valley and were there during 
the time Johnston's army was there. Im- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



585 



mediately after the evacuation of the place by 
General Johnston's invading army, they re- 
moved to old Camp Floyd, now Fairfield, 
Utah, where the father died and the mother 
yet resides, having accomplished eighty most 
useful years of life. 

The son Josias must have possessed much 
of that essential element of success called in 
modern phraseology "nerve," for when he was 
about fourteen years of age he assumed the re- 
sponsibility of caring for himself and started 
for Montana as a driver of a freighting outfit, 
in that capacity going from Salt Lake City to 
Helena and continuing in that employment 
for one season, after which his adventurous 
spirit took him to Nevada, where he was en- 
gaged in various employments until 1879, 
thence returning to Fairfield, Utah, in 1887, 
coming to the section of Idaho now Fremont 
county, wintering on Teton Island. Moving 
then to Lyman, for two years he was engaged 
in teaming, drawing poles and logs and in 
hunting, then he resided for three years on 
Charles Matson's farm on Birch Creek, there- 
after locating a homestead of 160 acres on 
which he resided seven years, doing the hard 
initial work of its development. Then selling 
out, he, in 1900, made his home at Rudy, for 
the first season carrying on the ranch of his 
sister, then purchasing forty acres, where he 
has now a comfortable and productive home, 
well-watered and under a high state of im- 
provement, showing the care, taste and skill 
of its owner. In political faith Mr. Young is 
stanchly arrayed ' in favor of the Republican 
party, with whose principles and policies he is 
in hearty accord, and he was ordained an el- 
der of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints at Salt Lake in 1874. 

On December 31, 1872, Mr. Young mar- 
ried with Miss Agnes J. Park, born on May 
22, 1852. at Mill Creek, Utah, being a daugh- 
ter of James P. and Agnes (Finley) Park. 



both being of Scotch birth, ancestry and line- 
age, the father coming to the United States 
from Scotland. He enlisted in 1866 with a 
Mormon battalion and after his discharge, 
married at Salt Lake City and made the fam- 
ily home at Mill Creek, where they lived many 
years as sterling, law-abiding and religious 
people. Thence they removed to Fairfield, 
where the father died in 1890. at sixty-five 
years of age, and the mother is still living, at 
seventy-eight years. The children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Young are : Andrew Josias, born April 
18, 1877; Agnes- E., born on February 22, 
1880; James Henry, born August 19, 1885; 
George William, born on December 20, 1895. 

WILLIAM C. SIMMONS. 

It is an interesting story that we have to 
tell concerning the connection which Mr. Sim- 
mons and his parents have had with the pio- 
neer history of the settlement of Utah and 
Idaho, the parents being among the earliest to 
settle in the barren wastes of what is now the 
garden country of Bountiful, Utah, and endur- 
ing many hardships and their married life 
having a tragic close by the untimely death of 
the father in military operations. 

William C. Simmons was born on Decem- 
ber 22, 1856, in Davis county, Utah, the son 
of William A. and Mary E. (Grover) Sim- 
mons. The mother in her girlhood drove four 
yoke, of oxen on the long journey across the 
plains in 1847, ' m this new countrv meeting 
and marrying with her husband at Salt Lake 
City, thereafter making their residence at 
Farmington, where the father, concerning 
whom further mention in connection with the 
sketch of William A. Simmons, elsewhere to 
be found in this volume, set out the first or- 
chard of the country at the mouth of Weber 
Canyon. He was long an industrious citizen, 
being killed at the mouth of Echo Canyon, 



5 86 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



where a number of the Mormon army assem- 
bled to resist the invasion of Utah by General 
Johnston. 

Upon attaining his majority, in 1877, Wil- 
liam C. Simmons, of this review, engaged in 
farming operations at Weber River, locating 
at Lyman, where he took up a homestead of 
160 acres in the yet untouched lands of that 
now fertile and productive country. He built 
the first house in the Lyman precinct, and as- 
sisted in the digging of the first two wells of 
the settlement, himself putting the third one 
on his own land. After the usual pioneer de- 
velopment work upon this land, he, in 1889, 
removed to the west side of the Teton Basin, 
where for four years more were continued the 
labors of early pioneer development, thence 
removing in 1894 to Rudy, where he pur- 
chased a partly improved property and devot- 
ing his time largely to the construction of the 
Enterprise Irrigation Canal, in which he ex- 
pended over $1,000. Here he is now residing, 
a most energetic, forceful factor in all matters 
of public and private improvement or benefi- 
cence, being a stalwart Republican in political 
views and intelligently and very capably hold- 
ing the office of school trustee for fourteen con- 
secutive years, with the exception of only one 
year. Perhaps no one man in all this region 
better represents the type of character, bold, 
self-reliant and assertive, that marks the leader 
of pioneer enterprises in new countries, and 
surely there is none who by his many esti- 
mable traits of character has won more friends 
or stands in higher esteem in business or social 
circles. 

The marriage union of Mr. Simmons and 
Miss Emma J. Davis was consummated at 
Montpelier, Idaho, on October 17, 1880. She 
was born at Nephi, Utah, on October 20, i860, 
a daughter of Jonathan and Louisa J. (Cole) 
Davis, natives of England, who also were pio- 
neers of Nephi. the mother being one of the 



heroic number who led the way in 1847 to 
Utah, in one of the very first ox trains. After 
years of pleasant but uneventful usefulness in 
Utah, they, in 1884, made their home at Wil- 
low Creek, Idaho, the father at this writing 
being sixty-seven years of age and the mother 
sixty-four. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Sim- 
mons has been blessed with eight children, 
namely: William C, born September 19, 
1881 ; Jonathan A., born July 29, 1883; Em- 
ma J., born November 10, 1885; a baby boy, 
born October 21, 1887, died in infancy; 
George, born July 20, 1889, died in infancy; 
Elsie May, born June 14, 1890; Mary Myrtle, 
born April 19, 1893 ; Claude Leroy, born 
March 6, 1898. and died July 27, 1898. 

THOMAS ATKINSON. 

Born in the quaint old city of St. John. 
New Brunswick, on July 23. 1843, in which 
province both of his parents, William and 
Phoebe (Campbell) Atkinson, were also born. 
Thomas Atkinson was but ten years of age 
when, in 1853. he accompanied his parents on 
their long overland journey to Utah, where 
they permanently located at Bountiful, devot- 
ing themselves to farming operations and be- 
ing known as sterling citizens of a deeply reli- 
gious nature. Here, after a life of quiet use- 
fulness, the father died on August 21, 1880. 
having attained the Biblical standard of sev- 
enty years ; the mother long survived him and 
is now cherished by her loving descendants and 
held in honor by a large circle of friends, the 
years of her life so far being- ninety-five. 

Thomas Atkinson remained at the parental 
home, diligently employed in the duties and la- 
bors of the farm, until 1865, when he com- 
menced life for himself at Silver Creek. Utah. 
After three years he proceeded to Nevada, 
where for a time he conducted freighting op- 
erations, thereafter returning; to Utah and in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



587 



various employments he continued to be there 
resident for sixteen years. In 1899 he came 
to Idaho, where he located a government home- 
stead of 160 acres near Lyman, Fremont 
county, where he is still resident. He has in- 
troduced many and valuable improvements 
upon his land and is now in the possession of 
a fertile and well-watered estate, splendidly 
adapted to the branches of agricultural indus- 
try. Mr. Atkinson has prosperously carried on 
from his first settlement the raising of superior 
bands of horses, cattle and sheep and the usual 
diversified farming of the Snake River Val- 
ley. He has given time and attention to the 
highly important subject of irrigation, was 
concerned in the building of the Reed Canal 
and was a director of the company for two 
terms of office. In the social, business and re- 
ligious circles of the community Mr. Atkin- 
son justly holds an exalted place, his mental 
capabilities, his sound judgment and his suc- 
cessful application of financial principles to the 
affairs of life evincing his certain title to being 
one of the truly representative citizens of the 
county. His ability to hold official place in a 
successful and dignified manner has been am- 
ply recognized by his superiors in the Church 
of Latter Day Saints, being ordained elder on 
March 11, 1865, later being ordained as a 
priest and a member of the Seventies, subse- 
quently being a counsellor to the bishop for 
eleven years and thereafter, on December 24, 
1899, was made bishop, in which, during his 
three years of service, he manifested qualities 
that magnified the office and won universal ap- 
probation and esteem. 

On March 11, 1865, Mr. Atkinson formed 
a most felicitous matrimonial union, being then 
united with Miss Elizabeth Simmons, of 
Bountiful, Davis county, a lady of pronounced 
strength and sweetness of character, who has 
been a valuable helpmeet to her husband in his 
onerous and responsible public duties. She 



was born on March 27, 1845, the daughter of 
William B. and Amanda (Chipman) Simmons, 
the father being a native of New Hampshire 
and the mother of Canada. Both were identi- 
fied with that wonderful migration of a reli- 
gious people across the plains, making the 
long journey to Utah with ox teams, and set- 
tling at Bountiful, where the father was not 
long spared to enjoy the religious freedom he 
had taken so much trouble to secure, dying on 
August 17, 1866, at sixty-seven years, the 
mother surviving until August 27, 1875, when 
she too passed to her reward. Mrs. Atkinson 
for four years gave most useful service in the 
primary work of the church, has been the suc- 
cessful president of the relief society for eight 
years and for six years most capably per- 
formed the duties of stake officer of the relief 
society. Incidentally we will here mention that 
in 1866 Mr. Atkinson was for six months ac- 
tively engaged in the Black Hawk war under 
command of Robert Burton, and was also con- 
cerned in the Morrisites' insurrection. 

Nine children have come to bless the home 
of Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson, namely : Thomas 
E., born January 5, 1866; Flora A., born Oc- 
tober 6, 1867; Amos A., born December 27, 
1869; William E., born February 27, 1872; 
Hyrum B., born January 14, 1875 ; Phoebe C, 
born December 14, 1878; Celia I., born No- 
vember 5, 1880; Rhoda E., bo¥n November 
10, 1883, died at eight years of age; Ozula, 
born April 21, 1886. 

M. HILLMAN. 

One of the best types of the bold, daring 
and independent sons of the Rocky Mountain 
section of America, where his birth occurred 
at Fort Harriman, Utah, in 1861, is Mayhew 
Hillman, who is distinctively entitled to the 
honorable title of self-made man, having from 
very early years been the architect of his own 



5 88 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



fortune and showing a marked capability in 
business operations, attaining, as the result of 
his judicious and well-applied efforts, not only 
material competency, but also the high regard 
of numerous friends, through his geniality, his 
courtesy and his exemplification of the truly 
fraternal life of the frontier period. 

Mr. Hillman was left an orphan at a very 
early age, his parents being Ira K. and Mary 
(Petty) Hillman, early pioneers of Utah. The 
father not many years after their arrival suc- 
cumbed to the hardships and privations that 
were the inevitable lot of that gallant society, 
which, through the force of its religious zeal, 
battled courageously with the wildness of 
frowning nature and wrested a giant state 
from barbarism to the benefits of an intelli- 
gent, cultured and religious civilization. 

Ira K. Hillman was born in Stafford, 
N. Y., in 1827, and, becoming an adherent of 
the Mormon faith while yet a young man, fol- 
lowed its varying fortunes in the East until the 
exodus therefrom to the Salt Lake country was 
planned, when he was one of the earliest to 
connect himself with a Mormon battalion and 
wend his way across the yet almost untraveled 
plains to the land of promise. There he met 
and married an equally brave and devoted 
lady, Miss Mary Petty, and together they la- 
bored with unintermitting industry in the de- 
velopment of civilization from the wilderness 
country until the death of the husband, in 
1865, when the family circle embraced ten 
children, the subject of this review being at 
that time only four years of age. Left thus 
deprived of the strength and protection of a 
husband's care, the battle of life became still 
harder for the devoted mother, who, however, 
unselfishly and faithfully manifested rare ca- 
pability and executive powers in the culture of 
her children whom she carefully reared to hab- 
its of industry and the fear of the Lord, her 
death occurring' in Davidson count v. Tenn., on 



March 26, 1901, at the age of sixty-eight 
years. Mayhew Hillman was early taught the 
necessity of industry and was quick to respond 
to the teachings, willingly performing such du- 
ties as came to him in the family life with 
thoroughness. At the age of fifteen he com- 
menced business life for himself, his initial 
employment being in connection with freight- 
ing operations, which under his capable and 
unremitting efforts soon became of scope and 
importance, extending throughout Wyoming. 
Idaho and Montana to the international 
boundary. Nothing else than prosperity could 
come from such industry, intelligence and care 
as Mr. Hillman gave to his undertakings, and 
they were successfully continued until 1888, 
when he changed the sphere of his operations, 
taking up a homestead claim of 160 acres 
within two miles of Edmunds postoffice. a 
portion of his present productive estate, and 
devoting his energies to the development of 
prosperous farming land from the unpromis- 
ing sagebrush territory, until now he has at- 
tained a highly satisfactory result, a fertile 
farm producing bounteous crops repaying- his 
diligent care and discriminating methods. A 
full and complete system of irrigation extends 
its beneficent influence wherever it has been ap- 
plied, while herds and flocks of cattle, horses 
and sheep are ranging under his brand and 
feeding on the nutritious grasses of the rang-e. 
Great attention has been given to irrigation. 
and he is now the president of the People's 
Irrigation Canal Co.. of Edmunds, and he 
owns an interest in the Egin Canal. In con- 
nection with his homestead property, Mr. 
Hillman has a prosperous stock interest at St. 
Anthony. 

In 1884 Mr. Hillman married with Miss 
Elizabeth Atkinson, also a native of Utah, and 
a daughter of Alfred J. and Ann (Potting') 
\tki11son, early Mormon pioneers of Utah, 
whence thev came from London. Ensfland. set- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



589 



tling first at Mill Creek and later removing to 
the Cache Valley, where they made their per- 
manent home at Clarkston. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hillman now have a family of six children, 
Russell, Elizabeth M., Robert, John, Victor 
and Lillian, a beautiful son, Ira, having died 
at the age of five years. The family is a 
pleasant one, and the parents, who are consist- 
ent and valued members of their faith of their 
pioneer parentage, are valued in the commu- 
nity and honored in the church for their many 
excellent qualities. 

RICHARD HENSLEY. 

If we were to reckon up the number of 
most valuable citizens that America has re- 
ceived as the gifts of England the result would 
be a startling one, for in almost every section 
of the country, and notably in the Great West, 
natives of that beautiful island are found occu- 
pying representative positions of high order in 
secular and spiritual offices, and are esteemed 
for their rugged honesty, their sincerity of 
purpose, their persevering industry and nu- 
merous other characteristics that are solid ele- 
ments in the superstructure of society. And 
in reviewing the successful careers of the ones 
who have prominently made their mark and 
have demonstrated rare qualities of usefulness 
in building up institutions in this section of the 
state of Idaho, Richard Hensley, who was born 
in England, stands conspicuously- forth. His 
birth took place at Sussex, England, in 1836, 
being the son of Richard and Sarah (Potter) 
Hensley, both parents scions of ancestral stock 
rooting deep in the very early days of Eng- 
land. His father, a brickmaker by vocation, 
was born on October 25, 1801, and joined one 
of the early Mormon emigrations from Eng- 
land to Deseret with his family, crossing the 
plains with an ox-team caravan, being there- 
after spared but a short time to enjoy the reli- 



gious privileges he had taken so much pains 
to secure, dying within a week after his arrival 
at his destination. The mother, born at Ditch- 
ling Point, England, on February 3, 1807, died 
on October 12, 1850, being the mother of six 
children, of whom the subject of this review 
was the eldest. Mr. Hensley was early bat- 
tling with life on his own account and at the 
age of nineteen years he decided to cast in his 
energies with the activities of the New World 
west of the Atlantic, there making his first 
home in Boston, thereafter migrating to Iowa 
and subsequently going "the plains across" 
with a handcart in which his few effects were 
transported. He remained in Salt Lake City 
for several years, his health being seriously 
impaired ftir a long time until he went to Ari- 
zona, where the dry air and balmy climate 
soon restored his health and where he re- 
mained, passing his time in various industries, 
for a period of six or seven years. Thence he 
returned to Salt Lake City, which was his 
home until he became one of the heroic band 
which made the first attempts to introduce civ- 
ilization to this section of Idaho, locating on a 
pre-emption claim at his present home and 
making the first efforts to develop the sage- 
brush land. As an early pioneer he took 
prominent and successful part irr the intro- 
duction of water to reclaim the desert, and as 
a result of his labors is now in ownership of an 
estate, finely situated and productive, lying 
less than two miles southwest of Edmunds 
postoffice, which is his address. Under his 
careful administration his stockraising opera- 
tions, which from the first have been prosper- 
ous and cumulative, have so increased as to 
largely demand his time and attention and to 
bring him an immense revenue commensurate 
with his care, skill and methodical industry. 
In social and society circles Mr. Hensley is 
known as a valuable citizen, of winning, genial 
and progressive manners and habits of thought, 



59° 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



while in the councils and assemblages of his 
church he holds the office of president and is 
a member of the council of the bishop. 

Mr. Hensley was united in marriage with 

Miss Christina M. , who was born on 

August 18, 1842, and died on June 27, 1867, 
in Sanpete county, Utah, being the mother of 
three, children : Richard, Sarah A. and James. 
The second marriage of Mr. Hensley was with 
Miss Sarah F. Heaton, who, born on Febru- 
ary 20. 1846. died on July 5, 1878, and of her 
six children, only one, the eldest, Mary A., is 
now living. A third time did Mr. Hensley 
essay matrimony, in 1879 wedding Miss Mary 
Roxbrough, who emigrated from Scotland at 
the age of ten years, coming with her parents, 
who after a residence in the East, eventually 
made their permanent home in Salt Lake City. 
To this home have come six interesting chil- 
dren, John, Helen, Job (deceased), Margaret, 
Edward and Hamilton. 

BfSHOP H. H. HUNTER. 

When in the coming generations of time 
some great national historian shall bend his en- 
deavors to trace the progress of the religious 
elements that have been so conspicuously dis- 
played in the formation of what is today dis- 
tinctively known as the American civilization, 
it stands beyond question of doubt or the hesi- 
tation of a moment that the mighty organiza- 
tion called the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- 
ter Day Saints will stand in the front of the 
description, on account of its mvsterious ori- 
gin, its marvelous growth and the malignant 
persecuting spirit manifested against it, and 
above all this on account of its occult and mvs- 
terious power whereby, through the coloniza- 
tion of the immense tracts of unpeopled wil- 
derness, desert plains and mountains have been 
transformed as by the touch of magic into im- 
mense regions of g-arden tracts, fertile fields. 



productive orchards and vineyards, with all the 
concomitants of an elevated, wealthy, moral 
and religious nation. The official leaders of 
the church, the gradation of its holy offices and 
the operations of its mass of members all are 
alike dominated by a deep religious fervor, a 
faith that never wavers, a consecration that 
never ceases to exist, combined with shrewd 
practicality, genius in temporal affairs and in- 
dustry that is ever unremitting and a brotherly 
love and charity that is far-reaching and wide- 
spreading in its benevolences. In its Western 
colonies it has ever kept in advance of "the 
onward march of years as they have fallen one 
by one into the abyss of time," and each year 
has shown a large increase in the population, 
churches, members and wealth. With the 
power that made steady the hand at the tiller 
of the ship of the church has also come the 
divine light to illuminate the way. The sea 
has been rough at times, turbulence has not 
been lacking, but under the guiding and foster- 
ing care of Him who doeth all things well the 
voyage which commenced on wagons has been 
attaining power with the fall of every sand in 
the hour glass of time. One of the number 
who, by his personal deportment, comportment 
and character is in a local way a striking ex- 
emplification of the truth of the statement, 
Henry H. Hunter, bishop of Egin ward. Fre- 
mont county. Idaho, is occupying a pronounced 
place in his community and accomplishing 
much good .through his connection with both 
temporal and spiritual affairs. 

Bishop Hunter was born at Grantville. 
Utah, in 1864, a son of Edward and Martha 
A. (Hyde) Hunter. The father was a native 
of Pennsylvania, who upon attaining" maturity 
engaged in traveling", visiting in succession five 
of the Eastern states, then coming west with 
the Mormon battalion who emigrated to Cali- 
fornia in 1847. Returning to Utah in 1848. 
he made the permanent family home at Kays- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



59i 



ville, thereafter moving to Grantville, where 
he passed the remainder of his life, having at- 
tained somewhat more than the Psalmist's al- 
lotment, three score years and ten. His wife, 
Martha A. Hyde, to whom he was married in 
Utah, was a daughter of Roswell and Mary 
A. (Cole) Hyde and this venerable pioneer still 
maintains her residence at Grantville, having 
been the mother of eleven children. 

Bishop H. H. Hunter for the first fifteen 
years of his life shared in the labors, pleas- 
ures and instruction of the parental home, after 
that being identified with the raising of sheep 
for several years. At the age of twenty-one 
years he migrated to Oakley, Cassia county, 
Idaho, and in this vicinag-e he conducted exten- 
sive sheepraising operations for a space of 
twelve years, thereafter removing, in 1898, to 
his present location in Fremont county, ac- 
quiring a property by purchase and rapidly 
increasing its value and attractive appearance 
by the erection of a commodious residence of 
modern style and equipment, together with 
suitable outbuildings, corrals, etc., for the suit- 
able carrying on of diversified farming and the 
stockraising business, which under his judi- 
cious care and wise discrimination has been de- 
cidedly cumulative, his flocks rapidly increas- 
ing in size and quality, while prosperity has 
come to him in a full measure. In 1902 his re- 
ligious qualities met with such favor from the 
superior officers of the church that he was 
called to the bishopric of Egin ward on June 25, 
1902, and in this incumbency he is devoting 
the full extent of his mental and spiritual 
powers, being reverenced in the community for 
his many estimable qualities of head and heart. 
In 1885 Miss Fanny Tawson became the wife 
of Bishop Hunter. She was a native of Utah, 
and a daughter of Abraham and Louise (Kil- 
patrick) Tawson, natives of England, who 
have been residents of Utah since the earliest 
years of the Civil war, and where the)' are 



still residing at Grantville, having attained ad- 
vanced years. Bishop Hunter and his estim- 
able wife have been the parents of eight chil- 
dren, namely: Anne T., Louis, Myrtle, Lloyd, 
Harold, Marion, Radie, and Ashland, who died 
at Oakley at the age of four months. 

JOHN POWELL. 

In compiling a work devoted to the per- 
petuation O'f the memory of the progressive 
and representative men of this rapidly advanc- 
ing portion of the state, the life records of the 
early pioneers can never be ignored. ' They are 
the very founders of its civilization, and their 
names will ever be associated with its history. 
It has been well said that the exigencies of life 
on the frontier of a new country required and 
developed unusual elements of physical and 
moral character in the people who settle it, for 
the conditions with which they have to deal 
are unlike those of other sections, and are prac- 
tically unprovided for by the rules of conduct 
growing out of ordinary experience. And no- 
where in the world has appeared a race of men 
and women more hardy, more successful, more 
tenacious of purpose, or more prolific of won- 
derful achievements than the pioneers of 
America. With undaunted courage they 
stepped into the heart of the primal wilderness, 
and, true lords of the heritage as they were, 
commanded its untamed conditions to "stand 
ruled." 

The first man to acquire title to a govern- 
ment homestead on the North Fork of the 
Snake River was the one of whom we now 
write, John Powell, who, in 1879, made his 
location on his present homestead, situated 
two and one-half miles southwest of Egin post- 
office, Fremont county, Idaho, thus becoming 
the first of the pioneer band who have here 
"taken seizin' " of the soil, and his wife was 
the first woman of the Ansflo-Saxon race to 



592 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



be the household spirit of a civilized home in 
all this region. As one of the few remaining 
members of the "old-timers" class, we here 
make record of some facts concerning this pio- 
neer settler. 

Mr. Powell was born in 1847. being the 
son of Edward and Ann (Tongue) Powell, 
who at the time of his birth were residing at 
Stableforth, England. His early years until 
he was nineteen years of age were passed 
either in diligent labor or in attendance on the 
schools of the neighborhood, and in 1886 the 
family, which had become converts to the 
Mormon church through the labors of its de- 
voted missionaries, determined to make the 
long pilgrimage to the new settlements that 
under the vivifying touch of that church were 
springing up like magic underneath the shad- 
1 >ws of the Rocky Mountains, and this pilgrim- 
age they safely accomplished, making the per- 
manent family home at Coalville, where, at 
the age of seventy-eight years, in 1900, the fa- 
ther passed from earthly life, his faithful wife 
surviving him, and, having celebrated her 
eighty-second birthday, she is now living at 
Upton. Utah. Of her seven children, John is 
the eldest. 

In Utah John Powell remained until he 
was twenty-three years old and then in the 
southern part of the territory he engaged in 
mining operations for two years. Then, re- 
turning to Coalville, he soon thereafter as- 
sumed the care and supervision of a Wyo- 
ming ranch, where the family continued to re- 
side for two years, and then commenced his 
pioneer life in the wild regions of the valley 
of the North Fork of Snake River in Fremont 
count}-, Idaho. Game and fur-bearing animals 
were everywhere in profusion and under the 
summer sun a beautiful but unpeopled coun- 
try stretched away in the distance The range 
was unconfined and Mr. Powell at once took 
advantage of this condition and engaged in 



stock operations, which under his necessary 
attention and keen discrimination soon attained 
important proportions and demonstrated the 
bountiful resources of this part of the state in 
this department of its industries. From that 
time until the present Mr. Powell has wrought 
earnestly and well in the development and cul- 
ture of his land, struggling with the problems 
of irrigation when he must dig his own ditches. 
as there were none with whom he might coop- 
erate, but steadily and surely the water was 
brought to vitalize the dormant soil and cause 
it to bring forth a marvel of productiveness. 
The march of improvement has been steadily 
onward, and where was once but a barren and 
treeless desert the eye now perceives long 
stretches of productive farms, towns and vil- 
lages, with churches and schoolhouses dotting 
the surface of the entire country. All these 
wondrous changes have the family of Mr. 
Powell witnessed and is yet only in the later 
prime of life, alert and vigorous, with the 
prospect of many years of useful activity lie- 
fore him. He was married in 1871, in Coal- 
ville, Utah, with Miss Jane Rawson, a native 
of England, and of this union the now surviv- 
ing children are James. Sarah A., John E.. 
Jane, William H., Thomas, Joseph, Maria and 
Lewis. The family stands as one of the rep- 
resentative families of the pioneer type and 
is recognized and honored for its industry, 
energy and kindly social qualities, a truly 
Western hospitality being ever in evidence at 
their friendly home. 

ARNOLD D. MILLER. 

There is a virility and inclination in some 
families which will not let them rest in the 
calm placidity of humdrum civilization, but 
which pushes them out into new and unde- 
veloped regions to create homes in the wil- 
derness, and out of unsettled conditions to pre- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



593 



pare the way for others to follow in serenity 
and peace. In other words, nature has made 
them pioneers. What danger and depriva- 
tion, pleasure, labor and romance are repre- 
sented in that word pioneer. Perils from sav- 
age foes and wild beasts, perils from the un- 
tamed forces and conditions of nature, — pio- 
neer life is ever a battle and none but the strong 
mentally and physically can win in this pro- 
tracted contest. The Miller family has been 
pre-eminently a family of pioneers, and in 
this compilation, designed to preserve for fu- 
ture generations something of the people of 
this section of Idaho, it is also well to state 
somewhat of the ancestry of the pioneers of 
whom we write, that the reader may under- 
stand the conditions surrounding their birth, 
their childhood and their youth. 

Nearly every American generation of the 
ancestors of Arnold D. Miller, of Parker, Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, have been aggressive pio- 
neers. The Pond, Arnold and Gardener fam- 
ilies date their American occupancy to the 
coming of English ancestors in the early days 
of New England settlement, while the Miller 
family emigrated from Holland in the same 
period of our country's history. 

Arnold D. Miller, the immediate subject of 
this review, was born in 1852, at Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, during a temporary residence 
there of his parents, Henry W. and Almira 
(Pond) Miller, who came thither from Utah 
in the interests of the Mormon church, of 
which they were most efficient members. 
Henry W. Miller was a native of New York 
and a son of James G. and Ruth (Arnold) 
Miller, who were natives of Connecticut, and 
from an old-time record we glean the follow- 
ing: "Henry Miller, born 1744, married Eliz- 
abeth Gardener, born October 21, 1750, and 
resided in Connecticut, where he died in 180 1 
and his wife in 1826." 

James Gardener Miller was born in 1769, 



as was his wife, Ruth (Arnold) Miller, whom 
he married on October 27, 1798, her death oc- 
curring in 18 16. Henry Miller in his early 
manhood came to Illinois, and there was con- 
nected with building operations in some of the 
most important cities. Being an extensive 
contractor and builder, he was connected with 
the erection of some of the finest structures 
in the early representative cities of that state, 
also in constructing large saw and gristmills 
at Nauvoo, 111., and being also engaged in 
merchandising at that place. A forcible leader 
in the Mormon church, he accompanied one 
of the earliest battalions to Utah, where he 
made his home in 1850, soon, however, being 
detailed by the church authorities to conduct 
large agricultural operations in raising wheat 
and other grain at Council Bluffs for the emi- 
grants. During the family residence at that 
place the subject of .this review had his birth. 
Returning to Utah in 1852, the father engaged 
in farming operations at Farmington, Utah, 
being on the long journey across the plains 
the leader of the train of emigrants that set- 
tled at that place. As a colonizer he was kept 
busy for a number of years, and during the 
latter part of his life he conducted colonizing 
operations in the southern part of Utah, and, 
at the venerable age of eighty-two years, he 
was still in active strength and vigor and vis- 
ited his old home at Farmington, where he 
suddenly died in 1885. His wife, the mother 
of the subject, who heartily cooperated with 
her husband in his labors and the peculiar ex- 
periences of his pioneer existence, is living at 
Syracuse, Utah, honored with the esteem and 
veneration of an unusual range of acquaint- 
ance, having attained the patriarchal age of 
ninety-two years and being the mother of 
eleven children, of whom Arnold D. is the 
youngest. 

Mr. Miller of this review has been a pio- 
neer from his birth. At the aee of fourteen 



594 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



years he accompanied his parents from Davis 
county to the wilderness of southern Utah, 
where he was initiated into the full meaning of 
pioneer existence. His first individual en- 
deavor was at the age of twenty years, when 
he engaged in conducting freighting opera- 
tions, first between Salt Lake City and St. 
George, Ariz., and continuing to be identified 
therewith in New Mexico, Wyoming and for 
hundreds of miles along the Rocky Mountain 
range, pursuing this vocation for a period of 
fourteen years, until the coming of the rail- 
road. Thereafter he was connected with rail- 
road construction for a period of two years in 
Utah, continuing this on the Atlantic & Pa- 
cific Railroad in New Mexico and Arizona. 
and later on the Denver & Rio Grande, and in 
this connection he laid out and constructed the 
station and grounds at Grand Junction. In 
1884 he removed to Idaho, where he located 
on a homestead of t6o acres, the site of his 
present beautifully improved property, taking 
also in addition to the homestead, desert and 
timber claims, and adding to his estate by pur- 
chase, and here he engaged with all the en- 
ergy of his forceful nature in cattleraising, 
paying, however, some attention to horses and 
sheep and to diversified farming. The im- 
provements of his property, which includes an 
elegant brick residence of modern style and 
construction, commodious and convenient out- 
buildings and other accessories to a successful 
carrying on the branches of husbandry to 
which he has devoted his energies, are entirely 
the result of his fertile thought, enterprise and 
labor, as when he made his home on the prop- 
erty the only product of the land was sage- 
brush. As the first step in its development 
was the procuring of water, it will easily be 
seen that Mr. Miller was early identified with 
irrigation. He has been connected with nearly 
every canal company that has been formed to 
bring this section of the country under effect- 



ive irrigation, and from 1885 he has given 
most valuable service in this direction. He 
has served as both secretary and president of 
the Egin Irrigation Canal Co. An unswerving 
and determined Democrat in his political ante- 
cedents and views, Mr. Miller has been elected 
by that party as a member of the Legislature, 
where he served with great ability and with 
satisfaction to his constituents. He has also 
been a candidate of his party for other offices, 
but shared the expected fate of defeat with his 
party ticket. Standing high as a citizen, so- 
cially, morally and religiously, Mr. Miller is a 
consistent member of the Mormon church, and 
in the early days held the position of counsel- 
lor to the bishop for eight or ten years. 

In 1873 Mr. Miller married Miss Man* J. 
Laub, a native of Utah and a daughter of 
George and Mary McGinnis, who are natives 
of Pennsylvania and by successive emigrations 
to Illinois, Missouri and Utah, became identi- 
fied with the colonies in south Utah, where 
the mother died in 1872, at the age of forty- 
one years, the father surviving her until 1880, 
when he too passed from earth, at the age of 
sixty-two years, they being the parents of 
eleven children. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the 
parents of nine children : Arnold D., Burt H., 
Franklin L.. Irwin S.. George YV.. Mary E., 
John T., Edgar R. and Leah L. Mr. Miller 
is in the active vigor of muture manhood and 
apparently the days of profitable labor in store 
for him are many. He has ever been ener- 
getic, liberal and public-spirited, but without 
outward show or demonstration. His life has 
been a potent factor for good in many ways 
and in many places, and it has set in motion 
numerous productive enterprises whose bene- 
fits are far-reaching. He is in the broadest 
sense of the term a true Western man, having 
the interests of the people ever at heart. In 
private and social life he is without blemish 
and above reproach. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



595 



EDWARD COX. 

Born in Somersetshire, England, of a line 
of ancestry that was connected with that land 
from before the battle of Hastings, his par- 
ents being Richard and Eliza Cox, the sub- 
ject of this biographical mention now resides 
on one of the attractive ranches of Fremont 
county, Idaho, where he is well maintaining 
himself as one of its intelligent and public- 
spirited citizens, prominent in business opera- 
tions and active in promoting all plans of pub- 
lic advancement and improvement. His 
mother passed her life in England, the father 
coming to America in 1836 and located in 
New York. He there remained for some time, 
expecting his wife to join him on every ves- 
sel, but after receiving one letter from her, she 
was never heard of by him again. Of their 
eight children, Edward was the youngest. 

Edward Cox received good early advan- 
tages of education in his native land and in 
1854 he crossed the Atlantic, making Pitts- 
burg his destination but remaining there only 
for one year, thereafter making his residence 
in Ohio, where and in Pennsylvania he was 
connected with mining operations for a period 
of more than a quarter of a century, evincing 
by his capacity of labor, his thoughtful recog- 
nition of the difficulties connected with this 
dangerous employment, and his successful con- 
quest of the hindrances in the way of varied 
advancement, the character of one strong in a 
knowledge of his duties and capable withal. 
Subsequent to this employment he was en- 
gaged for two vears in the same occupation in 
Illinois, thence returning to Ohio, where his 
superior skill and extended experience secured 
him a correspondingly responsible and lucra- 
tive situation in the mines of that state, in 
which he continued to labor until 1887. Then 
his attention was attracted to the enormous 
possibilities connected with the virile and pro- 



gressive young state of Idaho, with which he 
returned to cast in his lot. Upon arriving 
here he located at Eagle Rock for a year, 
thence removing to Camas, there commencing 
an association with railroad matters that con- 
tinued for three years, then, having secured a 
substantial degree of financial reinforcement, 
he filed on a homestead of 160 acres on the 
site of his present handsome estate, thereafter 
steadily devoting himself to its irrigation and 
development. By his -wise judgment and dis- 
criminating care he made a most marvelous 
change in its appearance, placing thereon fine 
improvements of a permanent order, among 
them erecting a handsome residence of mod- 
ern style and equipment, and suitable outbuild- 
ings for the successful carrying on of the di- 
versified farming and stockraising industries 
which he has here initiated, and his diligent 
industry has been amply_ reimbursed by the 
fructifying soil and the rapidly increasing 
number of his herds and flocks. In the sug- 
gestion, planning and construction of canals 
and ditches for the purpose of irrigation Mr. 
Cox has taken an active part from the first, 
while as a member of the Republican political 
party he gives intelligent and valuable services 
in the conduct of its campaigns, and in every 
department of the life of the community he 
cordially extends an active participation in 
every endeavor of public improvement or pri- 
vate benefaction or charity. His wife, who 
previous to her marriage with Mr. Cox, in 
1864, was Miss Mary A. Smith, heartily co- 
operates with all of his well-defined methods 
and activities. Their union has been blessed 
by a family of eleven children, namely : Rob- 
ert. Samuel, Maria, Charles, William (de- 
ceased), James ('deceased), Eliza, Edward, Nel- 
lie. Gertrude and Rosella (deceased), and the 
family occupies a representative position in the 
community, because of their rugged and ster- 
ling qualities. 



596 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



JAMES H. MASON. 

The traveler who twenty years ago might 
have so far wandered from the highways of 
commerce as to follow an Indian trail across 
the Egin bench would have deemed it a mat- 
ter of impossibility for fifty years of intelli- 
gently applied labor to produce the marvelous 
result that has been attained by skillful cul- 
ture and scientific application of the princi- 
ples of horticulture. However, on the present 
site of Parker, that business little section of 
Fremont county, by skill, attention and in- 
dustry the subject of this review, James H. 
Mason, who is a gardener and proprietor of 
a nursery, has demonstrated in a greater man- 
ner perhaps than any other individual in this 
section of the county the capabilities of the 
soil of Idaho when improved and cultivated by 
a person of intelligent knowledge and fine men- 
tal equipment. And it is the purpose of this 
work to record something more than a mere 
mention of the life and activities of such men, 
as they are the true heroes of progress, being 
the ones who distinctly and effectually mark 
the boundaries between barbarism and civiliza- 
tion. 

Mr. Mason was born in 1841, at South 
Lincolnshire. England, a son of Thomas and 
Jane (Bulmar) Mason, the mother being a 
daughter of James and Jane (Hornby) Bul- 
mar, who passed their lives in England, as did 
the father, who died at a comparatively early 
age. In 1848 the widow, who had become 
connected with the Mormon church, emigrated 
from her native land, and in 1852 she started 
from Council Bluffs on the long and perilous 
journey across the plains to Utah, being ac- 
companied by her only child, the subject of 
this review. She thereafter made her home 
in Salt Lake City, where her life was passed 
until her death, in March, 1888, at the vener- 
able age of eighty-one years, being highly hon- 



ored and respected in the community where 
she had resided for so man}- years. 

James H. Mason passed his early years in 
Salt Lake City, there receiving not only the 
education of the schools but also a practical 
education in the science of horticulture, re- 
maining there until his marriage with his first 
wife, Farmelia Bullock, when the family home 
was established on the Croyden River. Mor- 
gan county, Utah. There for the long period 
of twenty years he maintained an industrious 
and eminently useful life, giving his entire 
time and attention to the cultivation of the 
soil and making gardening and horticulture his 
specialties, establishing one of the first and 
finest nurseries of Morgan county. In 1884 
he came to Egin bench, then a portion of 
Oneida county, Idaho, and located on a home- 
stead immediately below Parker, but soon re- 
linquished his claim and made another location 
in 1886 at the townsite of Parker, where he has 
since maintained his home, devoting himself 
entirely to gardening, and to the development 
of his present extensive nursery business. He 
is a citizen of most valuable character and ster- 
ling integrity, possessing all of the solid ele- 
ments of moral and religious character. His 
capabilities for competently holding religious 
offices have been recognized by his superiors in 
the Mormon church, and he held for eighteen 
years a position on the high council of the 
stake and is maintaining at present the digni- 
fied office of high priest, also being the church 
clerk of Morgan stake for a number of years, 
where he was also a member of the choir and 
band. 

Probably no man in this entire section of 
country has done more toward the ornamenta- 
tion of homes and in increasing the beautiful 
surroundings of the Various residences of this 
section than has the honored subject of this 
review, who through the instrumentality of 
his nursery and the cultivation and propagation 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



597 



of beautiful plants and shrubs has educated 
the people to an admiration of and a desire 
to possess the beautiful as well as the barely 
practical things of life. He has been highly 
prospered in his business since coming to this 
county as one of its pioneers, and we may 
safely call his nursery one of the leading indus- 
tries of this section of the state. In secular 
life Mr. Mason has been frequently called to 
important office, and he was an assessor and 
collector in Morgan county, also an efficient 
superintendent of the schools and a member 
of the dramatic association for twelve years, 
being its president for five years. By his first 
wife, Parmelia Bullock, Mr. Mason was the 
father of eleven children: James T. B., Par- 
melia J. H., Henrietta, Frank H., Mary H., 
Edith C, Fred H., Orby W., Gertrude E., 
Norman H. and Earnest P. B. ; and by his 
second wife, Clara E. (Eardley) Mason, he 
was the father of seven children: John E., 
Clarence G., Louis C. (deceased), Henry R. 
(deceased), Cecil EL, Clara L. and Joseph L. 

D. A. PULLEY. 

Probably no other of the representative 
ranchmen of this section of the country has 
conducted stockraising in more different lo- 
calities than has the energetic subject of this 
review, D. A. Pulley, who, after many changes 
of location, is now comfortably and pleasantly 
located on his productive ranch lying in close 
proximity to Elgin postoffice, Fremont county, 
which is his present address. He was born in 
Andrew county, Mo., a son of James and Al- 
ice (More) Pulley, James Pulley being a native 
of England, where the Pulley family has been 
identified with the soil and its cultivation for 
many generations and where he attained ma- 
turity. Thereafter he emigrated and made his 
Western home in Andrew county, Mo., where 
he was connected with agricultural operations 



until 1857, when, in company with a battalion 
of his Mormon brethren, he crossed the plains 
to Utah with an ox team, and after residing at 
Salt Lake City for two years removing to Box 
Elder county, then to Payson and thereafter 
to Farmington in Davis county. He made his 
permanent home at American Fork, where he 
now resides, at the advanced age of seventy- 
eight years, being a son of Franc and Hannah 
Pulley, whose entire lives were passed in Eng- 
land. The mother of D. A. Pulley accom- 
panied her husband from England and in his 
subsequent migrations until her death, in 1857, 
at American Fork, Utah, she having attained 
the age of fifty-three years, being the mother 
of five children. 

The subject of this review, after diligently 
attending to the educational advantages of the 
schools in the vicinity of his father's residence 
in Utah, engaged in the activities of life for 
himself at the early age of nineteen years, then 
marrying and becoming a farmer and stock- 
raiser in Utah until 1873, which year marks 
his advent to Idaho : his residence, however, at 
that time was a brief one, as in 1875 ne re ~ 
turned to Ogden, where he remained until 
1885. thence removing to Oneida county and 
making his home at Malad City, and after a 
residence of three years at that place remov- 
ing to Custer county for a three-years resi- 
dence. On January 28, 1889, he located on 
his present place, which he acquired by pur- 
chase and where he has since been engaged 
in farming and other activities customary to 
agriculture in this section of the state. A man 
of decided principles, keen judgment, resolute 
„ will and strong character, he is ardent in the 
pursuit of an)' object in which he may be in- 
terested, and in all public matters of a local 
character is a willing and energetic worker 
in the Democratic party, in this connection be- 
ing often solicited to take commissions or nom- 
inations for public office, but steadfastly de- 



598 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OP BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE. 



dining, as he prefers at present to give all of 
his attention to his individual affairs. He was 
one of the prominent members of a company 
which constructed the Egin irrigation canal, 
holding most of the offices of the company. 

In 1874 Mr. Pulley was married, his bride 
being Miss Licla Moon, a native of Salt Lake 
City and a daughter of Hugh and Janette 
(Nichols) Moon. To this highly felicitous un- 
ion have come thirteen children : David M., 
MahaJa, Bertha, Lydia, Ezra (deceased), 
Henry. Melissa, Idah, Olive, Emery (de- 
ceased) and Jedediah. As a citizen and pub- 
lic-spirited member of the community Mr. 
Pulley stands high in the regard of the people, 
while in social, family and society relations he 
is universally esteemed and extremely popu- 
lar, being considered a representative man of 
more than ordinary ability, actuated by dis- 
tinct feelings of justice, honor and integrity. 

HENRY SIMPSON. 

To Nottinghamshire. England, we must 
travel if we wish to visit the birthplace of 
Henry Simpson, now a prominent farmer and 
stockraiser in Fremont county. Idaho, main- 
taining" his home and center of activities in the 
immediate vicinity of Parker postoffice, where 
his operations as a farmer and stockraiser are 
of scope and importance, being held as a ster- 
ling citizen of the county, whose influence is 
far-reaching in business circles and the social 
life of the community and of value in the 
Mormon church. 

The parents of Mr. Simpson were James 
and Martha (Beresford) Simpson, and the line- 
age of both his parents are recorded for many 
generations of the past in the county records 
so carefully preserved in the county towns of 
England. His father followed the occupation 
of a tailor, which he carried to such a degree 
of perfection that he had the reputation of be- 



ing the finest in England, and was the tailor 
to the royal family. He was located most of 
his life in Sheffield, where he died in 1889. 
having nearly attained the Psalmist's alloted 
term of three score years and ten. The mother 
did not long 'survive him, dying at the age 
of nearly seventy years, about two years after 
the demise of her husband, being the mother 
of eight children. Early taught to care for 
himself, to pay close attention to the business 
matters of life, Mr. Simpson became an ap- 
prentice to the trade of carpentry and after 
fully mastering the rudiments and principles 
of this vocation he, in 1871. came to Utah. In- 
eating at Pleasant Grove, and resided there 
as a carpenter and builder for four years, there- 
after living at Salt Lake City and at Farrn- 
ington. where he for about eight years was 
engaged at his trade. He then located at 
Rhods Valley for two years and becoming ac- 
quainted with agricultural life in his practical 
workings for one year, thereafter removing to 
Egin bench. Fremont county, Idaho, where in 
1884 he filed on a timber-culture claim which 
he. however, soon relinquished. Thence mov- 
ing to the site of the present town of Parker, 
he remained two years, then secured a pre- 
emption claim of 160 acres on which he is 
now residing and which is finely situated, being 
only one mile north of Parker postoffice. which 
is his address. He is engaged in farming and 
the raising of cattle of superior grade, which 
occupations he at present conducts, but he has 
disposed of his estate until his acreage now 
embraces only forty-five acres, which, how- 
ever, is well improved, finely situated, well- 
watered and productive. Politically Mr. 
Simpson is a loyal member of the Republican 
part}-, while in the Mormon church he has 
held the office of elder. 

The domestic relations of Mr. Simpson are 
very felicitous. He was married in the cen- 
tennial year of 1876 to Miss Rosella Grover.. 



BINGHAM) FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



599 



a native of Utah and a daughter of James and 
Emma (Walker) Grover, who at a very early 
day emigrated from England and located in 
Utah, where they lived honored and useful 
lives until their deaths. Mr. and Mrs. Simp- 
son have had ten children: Effie M., Pearl 
A., James H., Martha M., William G., Lucy, 
Rita, Lafayette and Myrtle A. A good and 
influential citizen, ready to enlist his services 
in any good cause which will benefit or de- 
velop the interest of the section of his resi- 
dence, and holding a decided position with re- 
gard to public matters of a local character, be- 
ing actuated by sympathy not only to accom- 
plish the development of the country, but also 
so far as in him lies to relieve the distress and 
suffering which everywhere appeals to hu- 
manity, Mr. Simpson is a citizen of whom his 
fellow citizens may well be proud. 

A. R. RICE. 

In the rapid development and onward 
sweep of events in the transformation of the 
Rocky Mountain section of the Great West 
many men from many lands have contributed 
and are contributing of their energies and 
vital powers to promote the progress of civili- 
zation, and it is a noticeable fact that of this 
number many of the virile, energetic and capa- 
ble workers are native sons of the soil, having 
their birth immediately under the shadow of 
the Rocky Mountains and coming up in touch 
with every form of life and industrious activity 
connected with this section of the country. 
Conspicuous among this number, and holding 
a high rank as a business man of intelligence, 
capability and marked efficiency and foresight, 
must be mentioned A. R. Rice, of the' popular 
mercantile firm of L. B. Rice & Sons, of Par- 
ker, Fremont county, Idaho, who was born in 
1874, in Beaver county, Utah, a son of Leon- 
ard B. and Martha J. (Stoddard) Rice. For 



further account of his parents and ancestral 
history the reader is referred to the sketch of 
Leonard B. Rice, which appears on other pages 
of this volume. At the age of ten years Mr. 
Rice accompanied his parents to Idaho, re- 
ceiving under the parental roof and from com- 
petent instructors his rudimentary education, 
therafter attending the noted Brigham Young 
Academy. In connection with his literary 
studies he devoted his attention to a thorough 
course at the agricultural college, also becom- 
ing proficient in the department of commer- 
cial business, from which he was graduated. 
Immediately succeeding his school life his theo- 
retical knowledge of business was supple- 
mented by practical labors in connection with 
the firm of Rice & Findley, of St. Anthony, 
by whom he continued to be employed for the 
term of five years, giving most faithful serv- 
ice and acquiring a valuable practical knowl- 
edge of business. The mercantile firm of L. 
D. Rice & Sons was formed to transact mer- 
chandising at the town of Parker, Fremont 
county, and here with his brother, O. S., the 
subject was in association with his father in 
the erection and establishment of their store, 
which contains a large stock of general mer- 
chandise, suitably selected to respond to the 
desires and wishes of the surrounding inhabi- 
tants. In connection with the increasing op- 
erations of the store, Mr. Rice has since been 
actively engaged and employed. As a mem-' 
ber of the Mormon church, in his business 
dealing's he is scrupulously exacting and fair, 
proving by his sagacity, capable management, 
enterprise and sound judgment that he has 
not mistaken his vocation: and he is highly es- 
teemed in all the departments of social or com- 
mercial life of this section of the state. 

The marriage relations of Mr. Rice have 
been unusually pleasant, as in 1847 he became 
the husband of Miss Edna M. Craft, a lady 
of intelligence and culture, who was born in 



6oo 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Paradise Valley, Utah. She was graduated 
from Brigham Young College in 1894, there- 
after receiving instruction in the normal 
school, thoroughly fitting herself for the re- 
sponsible position of teacher, after which she 
engaged in pedagogic work for three years in 
Fremont count} 7 , later becoming an instructor 
in the Stake Academy at Rexburg. in all of 
which relations she gave marked satisfaction 
and was of the highest value to the respective 
communities where she taught. In social cir- 
cles she stands in high esteem and has held 
several offices in the young people's societies. 
Her parents were Albert W. and Margaret 
(Alden) Craft, and her American ancestry 
traces back to the early days of the Pilgrim 
and Puritan colonies of New England. John 
Alden, the first American representative of 
that name, being one of the distinguished pas- 
sengers of the Mayflower in her first voyage 
to America in 1620. Her parents are now 
residing at Paradise, Utah. The family circle 
of Mr. and Mrs. Rice is completed by the 
presence of two children. Katie Maud and 
Leila M. Such lives as these are lessons of 
real value to the observant and the thoughtful ; 
they bring out prominently the characteristics 
that win, the qualities that elevate life above 
the sordid pursuit of gain, and offer encour- 
agement to young people who are willing to 
work with their minds and their hands and 
furnish other proofs of the familiar adage that 
there is no royal road to wealth or distinction 
in this republic. The achievement depends 
upon the individual man. 

WYMAN PARKER. 

We live in a time when people in America 
wish to know even-thing; to follow to its 
source every stream of knowledge; above all, 
where civilization has advanced with such gi- 
gantic strides as in the Rockv Mountain reefion 



of the Great West, especially where a few- 
years have seen brought forth that which in 
European countries would have lieen the prod- 
uct of ages, and we study with an increasing 
interest the lives and the careers of tin ise 
who stood in the front of the advancing 
column of progress and by their brave, heroic 
pioneer efforts rendered possible its subse- 
quent development and culture. In preserving 
the life records of this now rapidly disappear- 
ing class of bold and hardy pioneers the mis- 
sion of such compilations as the present finds 
a full and ample justification in narrating 
something of the men who have planted the 
first steps of civilization in southeastern Idaho, 
and who by their labors and achievements have 
been the leading factors in the development 1 >f 
the country from its original desert condition 
to a land of attractive and productive home*. 
In this connection must be prominently men- 
tioned Wyman Parker, the venerated pioneer 
of the county with which his name is promi- 
nently connected and perpetuated in the brisk 
young city where appears his patronymic. 

Mr. Parker was born in 1838, a son of 
Wyman and Maria (Miner) Parker, in Dela- 
ware county, N. Y., his parents being residents 
of Connecticut, where the family has main- 
tained residence and prominent standing fi ir 
two generations. His paternal grandfather, 
also Wyman Parker, came from England to 
that state and married Nancy Gillett. later in 
life locating in the wild region of Delaware 
county. N. Y.. and there conducting farming. 
The father of Mr. Parker left his rural pur- 
suits in Delaware county and entered the mili- 
tary service of the United States in its war 
with Mexico and in that countrv he was killed 
in 1848. His mother was a daughter of Jo- 
siah and Sophia (Bowie) Miner, who were con- 
nected with the Plymouth colony from the 
earliest days of its colonization and also par- 
ticipated in bloody battles of the Revolutionary 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



60 1 



war. Of two children born to his parents 
Wyman Parker is the sole survivor. His 
early hfe, following the common pursuits of 
boyhood, was passed in the Delaware county 
home of his paternal grandfather until the 
age of eighteen years, when he became fas- 
cinated with maritime life and embarked as a 
sailor on board a whaler bound for the north- 
west coast of America, our present Alaska, 
and in the prosecution of this voyage he passed 
through Bering Strait and into the Arctic 
Ocean, this voyage continuing for two years, 
three months and seven days. In 1850 Mr. 
Parker came to Salt Lake City,, like all of the 
early pioneers, coming "the plains across," 
and on his journey he was busily engaged in 
driving an ox team. After his arrival in Utah 
he stopped a year in Salt Lake Gity, then pro- 
ceeding to Centerville, where he married and 
engaged in farming. He later moved to 
Weber county and there remained employed 
in husbandry until 1866, thence removing to 
Farmington, where he conducted agricultural 
operations for two more years and then in 
Morgan county he was busily occupied for 
twenty years. 

Twenty-two years ago, in 188 1, Mr. Par- 
ker came to this portion of Fremont county, 
then a part of Oneida county, Idaho, being 
one of the first pioneers to take up land in 
this section of-the state and filing a claim on a 
homestead of 160 acres. Afterwards selling 
this, the first private sale of land made in all 
of this section of the county, he located on 
his present place on which has since been plat- 
ted and developed the town of Parker and he 
has the distinction of being its founder, giving 
it his name and doing much to develop the 
property and assisting other residents in mak- 
ing it a permanent center of business activi- 
ties. Here he has erected an elegant brick 
residence of modern design and architecture 
and made many other improvements toward 



building up the place. Pie has also from the 
first been extensively engaged in a stock .busi- 
ness, running large herds of superior cattle 
and a fine band of horses, together with ex- 
tensive flocks of sheep, having well rounded 
out a life of most useful activity, which has 
tended not only to his personal emolument 
and the advancement of his own interests, but 
also to the decided benefit of the community, in 
the esteem of which he holds a most enviable 
place. Possessing qualities of a valuable char- 
acter in the administration of positions of trust 
and responsibility, it may readily be concluded 
that his services have been claimed by the pub- 
lic in many official positions, in the administra- 
tion of all of which he has comported himself 
with dignity and conducted their affairs to the 
benefit and satisfaction of the people. While 
a resident of Morgan county, at various times 
he held nearly every county office and during 
his residence in Fremont county he has capabl}' 
and efficiently held the two responsible offices 
of justice of the peace and county commis- 
sioner. In poliaical principles he is identified 
with the Republican party, and as an estimable 
member of the Mormon church he was hon- 
ored with the appointment of bishop in Mor- 
gan county, holding this office for many years 
and he has also the historic distinction of be- 
ing the first bishop of Parker ward. 

In 1852, at Centerville. Utah, Mr. Par- 
ker married Miss Martha M. Simmons, a na- 
tive of Canada and a daughter of William B. 
and Amanda (Chipan) Simmons, who emi- 
grated to Utah from Canada in 1849, settling 
first in Centerville and later at Bountiful, 
Utah, where they passed their remaining days. 
By this marriage Mr. Parker became the fa- 
ther of four children, Wyman, Amasa, Martha 
M., and William B.. who died in infancy. In 
i860 Mr. Parker married with Miss Eliza M. 
Grover. a native of Palmyra, Mo., who ac- 
companied her parents when an infant to'Nau- 



602 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OE BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



voo, 111., where she attained the age of seven 
years, and on the expulsion of the Mormons 
from that city in 1846 she accompanied her 
father and able mother to Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, whence after passing the winter the}' 
proceeded to Utah, arriving at Salt Lake City 
in September, 1847. Her parents were Thomas 
and Caroline (Whitney) Grover and her mother 
died in Nauvoo, where her father later mar- 
ried Miss Caroline Nickerson. After remain- 
ing with her father's family at Salt Lake City 
and in Farmington until i860, she, as before 
stated, became the wife of Mr. Parker, her 
father dying at the Farmington home. Mr. 
and Mrs. Parker have seen a family of twelve 
children come to bless their home and of these 
eight are now living: Eliza, now Mrs. Stod- 
dard ; Emeline. now Mrs. Bowser ; Melrose ; 
David; Mary A., now Mrs. Moon; Lucy C. : 
Albert, the deceased children being Julia M., 
Thomas G., Jael and Henry M. 

HENRY E. JENKINS. 

Born in 1855, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, a 
son of Evan and Ann (Davis) Jenkins, the 
subject of this review, Henry E. Jenkins, who 
is now conducting ranching and cattleraising 
operations two and one-half miles west of the 
brisk little city of St. Anthony, Fremont 
county. Idaho, descends from a family long 
connected with the history of Wales. There 
his father was born and was married, and 
when about the age of seventy years he emi- 
grated and established his first family home in 
the new world at Council Bluffs, Iowa, where 
he was diligently engaged in various occupa- 
tions, continuing there to reside for the period 
of twelve years. Thence, in 1863, he crossed 
the plains and drove one of the ox teams of a 
large emigrating party to Salt Lake City. 
Utah, thereafter settling in Farmington and 
continuing to be occupied in the development 



and cultivation of his home place until the 
later years of his life, when he practically re- 
tired from active participation in the duties of 
his farm, attending only to the official duties 
connected with his position as one of the Sev- 
enties of the Mormon church, of which he was 
a most estimable member. His death occurred 
in 1900, at the very venerable age of eighty- 
five years. His devoted wife still survives 
him. making her home at Farmington. being 
the mother of ten children ; her parents were 
John and Ann (Davis) Davis. 

Henry E. Jenkins early gave manifesta- 
tions of more than usual administrative abili- 
ties, from the age of sixteen years not only 
engaging in business for himself, but contrib- 
uting to the support of his father's family. 
His first activity was in connection with 
freighting operations, which he conducted 
with very satisfactory results between Salt 
Lake City and various Utah points and Hel- 
ena, Butte. Virginia City and other Montana 
places. In this line of enterprise he remained 
for a period of about eight years, when he 
transferred his attention to railroad opera- 
tions, being connected with these in Idaho for 
a year and two and one-half years in the do- 
minion of Canada. In 1885 he came to this 
portion of Fremont county, there taking up a 
homestead of 160 acres, and with his character- 
istic energy and discriminating ability he en- 
tered upon the work of its development, im- 
provement and cultivation, from the first con- 
ducting a stock business of importance, run- 
ning a large band of horses and cattle. One 
of the first fields to which he devoted his en- 
ergv was that of irrigation, and he has been 
prominently connected with and a stockholder 
in all of the leading irrigation canals of this 
section. To his original homestead he has 
added a desert claim and he is now the un- 
disputed owner of a fine estate. 

Mr. Jenkins is a Splendid specimen of the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



603 



men who are rapidly forging to the front as 
pioneers in the two great elements of the pros- 
perity of the state, farming and stockraising, 
and is alert and vigorous in all matters apper- 
taining to the improvement and welfare of 
the public. He is a representative citizen of 
the best order, occupying a position in com- 
munity circles commensurate with his popu- 
larity and sterling moral character, and in 
church relations he is highly esteemed. In 
1878 Miss Caroline E. Rice, a daughter of 
Leonard G. and Elizabeth (Beaufort) Rice, be- 
came the wife of Mr. Jenkins, and their mar- 
riage union has resulted in the following chil- 
dren : Henry L., Leroy, Edna, Eva, Leonard, 
Charley and Lester. 

JOSEPH W. HARMISON. 

Among the number of industrious and sa- 
gacious men who have made their permanent 
home in the rich and rapidly developing Up- 
per Valley of the Snake River of Idaho we 
find Joseph W. Harmison, who has placed 
himself, by his foresight, care and shrewd fore- 
casting of events, in a highly gratifying finan- 
cial position and in the possession of one of 
the pleasant homes of the locality where he 
now resides. He is a native of Farmington, 
L'tah, where his birth occurred on June 29, 
1849, as the son °f James and Fanny E. 
(Brownell) Harmison, natives of Illinois and 
devoted members of the Mormon church from 
its earliest existence at Nauvoo, their mar- 
riage there occurring on May 22, 1843, an d 
from which place they came westward in the 
great movement to the promised land of Utah, 
crossing the plains with ox teams in 1849 and 
making their home as pioneer settlers of Farm- 
ington, where they were for long years highly 
honored and useful citizens, the mother dying 
on August 20, 1882, and the father not long 
surviving, departing this life on June 20, 1884. 



Brought up in an atmosphere of honest 
industry and religious devotion, Mr. Harmi- 
son of this review was early made familiar 
with the agriculture of the West, having good 
school advantages also until he was twelve 
years old. From that time he has given his 
time entirely to ranching, becoming fully 
versed in and conversant with every depart- 
ment of this productive industry. 

In the fall succeeding his father's death 
he came to Idaho and located at Gray's Lake, 
where for nine busy and fairly profitable years 
he was engaged in cattleraising, thereafter, 
in 1893, removing to Menan, where he has 
since resided, giving his attention for the 
most part to cattleraising, but combining 
butchering and the sale of meat with this for 
the past two years, being prospered in his op- 
erations as the legitimate result of his 
marked business qualities. In connection 
with his ranch, Mr. Harmison is the owner of 
a fine village property in Menan, consisting of 
six and two-thirds acres of land, where he 
now makes his home, on which he has a fine 
and promising young orchard. He has from 
early manhood been a stanch supporter of the 
Republican political party, while his church 
relations have from childhood been with the 
Mormon church, in which religious organiza- 
tion he ably maintains the office of elder. 

On February 8, 1869, at Salt Lake City, 
Mr. Harmison was united in matrimonial re- 
lations with Miss Marjorie Butters, born 
at Blairgowrie, Scotland, on September 16, 
1849, the daughter of David and Margaret 
(Spaukling) Butters, who brought her to 
Utah in their journey hither in 1854. They 
located at Lehi, where they were long en- 
gaged in agricultural operations. The father, 
who now resides at Clarkston, Cache county, 
Utah, at the advanced age of eighty years, 
was the parent of twelve children, five by the 
first marriage, among whom is Marjorie. 



604 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



From Mr. and Mrs. Harmison has come 
a family of eight children, James J., born 
on January 9, 1870; Margaret, born Decem- 
ber 28, 1871 ; Rebecca, born January 11, 1874; 
Hvrum, born August 20. 1876, died in in- 
fancy: Daniel D., born August 11. 1882; Be- 
thiah, born September 25, 1885; Mabel, born 
November 29, 1888; Ida, born January 15, 
1893. 

In community and church circles the family 
stand in extremely cordial relations, Mrs. Har- 
mison being a highly esteemed and useful 
member of the Ladies' Relief Society of Me- 
nan, and it is a matter of record that when 
he was but -thirteen years of age Mr. Harmi- 
son loyally served as a minute-man in the 
Indian raids of the early Utah life. 

YY. D. WILLIAMS. 

In turning our attention to a review of the 
distinguished part which Judge William D. 
Williams has taken in the development and 
upbuilding of the section of Idaho immediately 
contiguous to the brisk little city of St. An- 
thony, of which he is a prominent commercial 
factor and leading citizen, we find that his 
birth occurred on August 25. 1848. in the tin- 
producing town of Swansea, in the southern 
part of Wales. Of this rugged little portion 
<>f Great "Britain we will mention incidentally 
that no other country or section of the civilized 
countries of Europe has given so large a pro- 
portionate number of its sons to the labor of 
redeeming the Rocky Mountain section of the 
Great West of the United States from its orig- 
inal state of barbarism and unproductiveness. 
Her sons are to be found in nearly every town 
of importance and in every mining camp, the 
name always being synonymous with broth- 
erly feeling and kindness, untiring industrv 
and jmiceasing activity. A son of David E. 
and Mathilda (Williams) Williams, the origin 



of his ancestry is lost in the remote ages of 
antiquity, all being residents of Wales and 
England, so far back as can be traced. His 
father was born in Bath, in Somersetshire. 
England, where he received a most excellent 
technical education in mechanical science and 
applied mechanics. He removed to Swansea 
to become a superintendent of mechanics in 
the great iron and tinplate works at that place. 
and there he resided for many years, having 
the confidence of his employers and the repu- 
tation of being a God-fearing and most estim- 
able man. In 1878, when he was nearing the 
close of his life, he emigrated from Wales to 
Utah, making his home at Benson. Cache 
county. Utah, from there in 1889 removing 
to St. Anthony, where, on November 2, 1900. 
at the age of eighty-one years, he closed his 
eyes to the scenes of earth, being a member of 
the Church of Latter Day Saints, in which he 
held the office of high priest. His parents 
were Edward and Margaret ( Edwards) Wil- 
liams, lifetime residents and fanners of Wales, 
where the mother lies buried at Rhyd-y-fro and 
the father at Swansea. The mother of Mr. 
Williams accompanied her husband from her 
native land of Wales to Utah, where she died, 
at the age of sixty-four years, on December 
18. 1S86. at Hyde Park. She was a daughter 
of Noah and Hannah (Howells) Williams, 
who passed their entire lives in their native 
land, and of the three children of his parents. 
Judge Williams is the eldest. 

During his youth the immediate subject of 
this review applied himself with earnest assi- 
duity to the pursuit of knowledge in the ex- 
cellent schools of Swansea, and also there at- 
tained a knowledge of carpentry, thereafter 
going to England to assume the position of a 
bookkeeper in the Lydbrook Iron and Tin 
Plate Co.'s works at Lydbrook. Gloucester- 
shire. England, performing his duties with 
such satisfaction and ability that he was pro- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



605 



moted to general bookkeeper of the concern, 
which respectable position he occupied with 
discriminating care and conceded ability for 
the period of five years. He then refused an 
offer which was made to him of becoming a 
manager of works near there that he might 
emigrate to Utah to enjoy the .full privileges of 
the Mormon church, with which he had be- 
come affiliated, and in 1876, in the accom- 
plishment of this purpose, he arrived at Lo- 
gan, Utah. After one year's residence there 
he purchased real-estate in Benson and con- 
ducted agricultural operations. In 1882 he 
was sent on a mission to England in the in- 
terest of his church and there passed over two 
years of successful labor in this connection. 
Returning to Benson, he there resided until 
1889, when he took up a homestead of 160 
acres at Teton City, Fremont county, Idaho. 
In 1890 he erected the first sawmill on the 
Henry's Fork, in Twin Groves, and for four 
years was engag'ed in sawmilling and lumber- 
ing operations. He turned his attention to 
the development of the region around St. An- 
thony, becoming connected with stockraising 
operations and also building a fine block, which 
is known as the Williams store building, and 
he here engaged in merchandising for four 
years, thereafter giving his attention entirely 
to ranching and real-estate operations at St. 
Anthony, building a number of houses in the 
Williams addition to the city and consummat- 
ing many sales of property. As a leading 
factor in the development of ranching inter- 
ests, he was largely interested in irrigation and 
has been connected with several companies. 
In political identity he is classed as a Socialist 
and 'at the present time is holding the office 
of justice of the peace at St. Anthony, while 
in the Church of Latter Day Saints he has held 
the office of bishop of Twin Grove ward, of 
East St. Anthony, for a number of years and 
also the office of high priest at St. Anthony. 



On June 22, 1878, in Smithfield, Utah, 
were married Mr. Williams and Miss Alice M. 
Clark, a native of Logan, Utah, and a daugh- 
ter of Israel J. and Emily (Pierson) Clark, 
natives respectively of New York and Michi- 
gan, their union being consummated in Utah, 
whither the father came in one of the hand- 
cart caravans, settling first at Farmington in 
Davis county and later having the distinction 
of being the first settler of Logan. Thence 
he removed to Clarkston, which place was 
named in his honor, while later than this he 
was given the appointment of missionary 
teacher to the Indians, in which capacity he 
visited many places and tribes of the West, 
and after long years of successful labors he 
is now living retired at Vernal, Uintah county, 
Utah, at the venerable age of eighty-two years. 
His faithful wife, who has been the mother of 
seventeen children, is still living at the age of 
sixty-four years. To the marriage union of 
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have come ten chil- 
dren, namely: Matilda (deceased), David E., 
William H, Emily (deceased), Grace, Justus, 
Gwendolyn, Lillian (deceased), Emrys and 
Myfamvy. 

HARRY YAGER. 

A pioneer of pioneers of this section of 
Fremont county, Idaho, coming hither in 
1878 when he was but twenty-two years of age 
as one of the first white men to here pitch his 
tent, and now being actively engaged as a 
popular liveryman at St. Anthony, Harry Ya- 
ger of this review has seen all of the great 
development of the country, himself being an 
integral portion of the forcing factors that 
have wrought so grand a result, and we take 
pleasure in noting for the benefit of coming 
generations a synoptical sketch of his life and 
activities. 

The first American Yager of this family 
was Henry Yager, a native of Germany, who. 



6o6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



about the time of the war of 1812, took up 
his residence in the little village of Buffalo. 
N. Y., where he long followed the trade of a 
wheelwright, later in life removing as a pio- 
neer to Arizona, where his death occurred. 
His son Henry, the father of the one of whom 
we now particularly write, came with his par- 
ents to Buffalo, there attained his majority 
and thereafter established a profitable hotel 
and livery business at Fenton, Mich., dying 
there in 1892 at the age of sixty-two years. 
A man of independent thought and public 
spirit, as a member of the Democratic party 
he was chosen to various town offices, which 
he filled with credit. He married Harriet 
Main, a native of Ontario. Canada, and a 
daughter of William N. and Harriet (Babcock) 
Main, her father coming from Ireland to On- 
tario, where he was long engaged in the hotel 
business. His daughter Harriet did not attain 
long life, as her death occurred in 1865, at the 
age of sixty-three years, being the mother of 
six children. Harry Yager, son of Henry and 
Harriet (Main) Yager, was born at West Co- 
burg, Ontario, Canada, in 1856, but his early 
life was passed at Fenton, Mich. At the age 
of twelve years he took upon himself the re- 
sponsibilities and care of his own individuality, 
going to Ontario and being busily occupied 
there for two years, thence going to Detroit, 
and here he enlisted in the regular army, as a 
member of Company D. Sixth United States 
Infantry, witli which he faithfully served a 
term of five years, becoming a non-commis- 
sioned officer and receiving an honorable dis- 
charge while on service in Dakota. Return- 
ing to Buffalo, it was not long before Mr. 
Yager reenlisted for five years, this time being 
assigned to Company A, Fourteenth United 
States Infantry. This organization in time 
was ordered to Fort Hall, Idaho, where it was 
stationed when the second enlistment of our 
subject expired, and he then became one of 



the early leaders in ranching and the raising 
of cattle in this portion of the county and 
was greatly prospered in his endeavors, hav- 
ing a practically unlimited range on which to 
run his fine herds. He continued his stock 
operations for nearly twelve years, then es- 
tablished the livery business at the thriving 
town of St. Anthony, Idaho, which he con- 
tinues to conduct, having a full share of the 
appreciative patronage of the people and be- 
ing one of the best representatives of the pio- 
neer settlement. In connection with this busi- 
ness Mr. Yager owns two fine ranches, each 
lying in Wilford precinct, closely adjacent to 
St. Anthony. 

Air. Yager has been and is prominent in 
political circles and has held the distinctively 
honorary office of chairman of the Republican 
central committee for a term of two years, be- 
ing also assessing clerk for four years of the 
district comprising Bannock, Bingham and 
Fremont counties, while he holds fraternal re- 
lations with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. The marriage relation of Mr. Yager 
dates back to 1876, when he married Miss 
Mary Pollock, a native of England and a 
daughter of David and Cecilia (McCulloch) 
Pollock, natives of Scotland, who after their 
marriage resided in England until their mi- 
gration to Utah. They were members of one 
of the earliest pioneer Mormon battalions, 
the residue of their lives after reaching Utah 
being passed at Beaver City. Mr. ami Mrs. 
Yager have had a family of six children : Wil- 
liam. Lewis and Charles are now living, those 
who have departed this life being Harry. Ed- 
ward and May. 

JAMES H. PIXCOCK. 

Sociologists of the present day are prac- 
tically unanimous in their acknowledgment of 
the power of ancestrv to mold, affect and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES. IDAHO. 



607 



change the life course of its descendants, and 
when we find an individual of strong and virile 
physical and mental qualities and know that 
for g-enerations his forefathers have been men 
of right living, strong health and keen intel- 
lect, we are able to assert that in the repre- 
sentation of the family in the present genera- 
tion there will be no premature weakening of 
the vital forces, that a sound mind in a sound 
body will ever look keenly upon all subjects 
presented to his observations and that his 
evenly balanced organization will render him a 
conspicuous and most valuable member of so- 
cietv in any and all spheres of activity to 
which he may be called. These reflections 
come to our mind as we are considering the 
unostentatious but highly valuable endeavors 
of James H. Pincock. now one of the best 
known and highly valued citizens of Fremont 
county, Idaho, where he is now maintaining 
his residence in the vicinity of Teton postoffice. 
which is his address. 

He was born on January 20, 1858, at Og- 
den, Utah, a son of John and Isabel (Doug- 
las) Pincock, and for further details of the life 
and activities of his parents we refer the 
reader to the sketch of George A. Pincock, 
appearing on other pages of this work. 

For man}- generations the Pincock family 
resided in England, in a quiet manner doing 
well the duties of their lives in the stations 
they were called to fill and storing up a vital- 
ity that descended in no unstinted measure to 
their descendants. The subject of this re- 
view passed the early life on a primitive Utah 
farm, where diligent labor, plain fare, and oft- 
entimes privations were the conditions of exist- 
ence, and in the free air of the plains he at- 
tained manhood with health and vigor and 
possessed of a keen enjoyment of a strenuous 
life, mental or physical. At the age of twen- 
ty-five years he came to the Snake River Val- 
ley of Idaho, being among the pioneer band 



that broug-ht to the wild sage plains their first 
perception of civilization. The task to subdue 
the wild face of nature that was then presented 
to this heroic band was a highly difficult one, 
embracing untiring toil, great difficulties' and 
many untried problems ; but the changed con- 
dition of affairs and the greatly increased num- 
ber of inhabitants testify that the work of sub- 
jugation has been most thoroughly and faith- 
fully accomplished. Mr. Pincock has been one 
of the foremost in this work, not only in the 
development of his own estate, but, through 
his wise counsel and timely aid to others, he 
has been an effective- force for good in this 
direction. 

He located a homestead claim of 160 acres 
seven miles in a southwesterly direction from 
St. Anthony, adding to this a desert claim of 
160 acres, and he has conducted its improve- 
ments and development on comprehensive 
lines of breadth and practicality, carrying on 
g-eneral farming - and the prosperous raising- 
of cattle and sheep of a superior quality. He 
wrestled with the problem of water supply 
from the first, until, by a well-conceived and 
judicious plan, the first irrigation canal, known 
as the Wolf Canal, was constructed to con- 
vey the waters of Teton River out upon the 
heretofore arid plains. 

Republican in political belief, his counsel 
and active cooperation are given in its aid and 
are active factors in its success in his pre- 
cinct. His religious nature meets its full re- 
quirements in the faith of the Church of Lat- 
ter Day Saints and the authorities of his re- 
ligious organization have honored him with 
positions of distinctive trust, he holding the 
offices of high priest, presiding priest of Wil- 
ford from 1883 to 1885 and a member of the 
high council from 1885 to 1900. 

On November 24. 1880, the marriage of 
Mr. Pincock and Miss Annie E. Garner was 
solemnized. She was the daughter of Fred- 



6o8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



erick and Ann (Horricks) Garner and was 
born at Ogden. Utah. Her father came from 
Illinois, his native state, to Utah, becoming a 
pioneer settler of Ogden. there taking up a 
homestead and following husbandry and there 
himself and wife now reside, their lives of 
useful and religious activity winning them 
many friends who hold them in esteem and 
veneration as sterling pioneers. 

The family of James H. Pincock and wife 
now comprises seven children, Josephine, 
James P., Clarence B., Anna Belle, Alice P., 
Ida F. and Roland D., and it is one of the 
attractive centers of cultured life of the entire 
county, winning manners and a genuine hos- 
pitality ever being conspicuous features of the 
household. 

HON. FREDERICK T. DUBOIS. 

American liberty and the progress of free 
institutions in this great republic are much in- 
debted to the Huguenot element in its cosmo- 
politan population, for this cultured class of 
the French nation possessed all the chivalry 
which the best breeding and inherited wealth 
and splendid educational advantages might 
create. Combined with this were a proud pat- 
riotism, an unflinching valor, statesmanship of 
the highest character and business ability sec- 
ond to no other class. Its representatives have 
occupied with honor the leading places in 
American official relations from Colonial days 
to the present, and they are known and hon- 
ored in the circles of trade and finance. 

So it means much when we say that Hon. 
Frederick T. Duhois. one of the United States 
senators from Idaho, comes of this eminent 
race, for it indicates that by inheritance, edu- 
cation and training he was fully reinforced by 
qualities giving him a natural adaptation for 
the senatorial toga. He was born in Craw- 
ford county. 111., on May 29. 185 1, as a son of 



Hon. Jesse K. and Adelia (Morris) Duhois. 
the father being a prominent Republican ol 
the state and an intimate friend of Abraham 
Lincoln, holding also with fidelity many po- 
sitions of honor and public trust, among them 
being that of auditor of the state. His loyalty 
to his family, his friends and his party was 
never in the slightest degree questioned and 
he held the esteem of the whole people. 

Fred T. Dubois was the youngest of the 
three sons of the parents, an older brother. 
Dr, J. K. Dubois, being now one of the lead- 
ing citizens of Boise. In a large measure 
Fred inherited his father's political proclivities 
and talents, even as a youth manifesting ability 
in the management of the local politics of his 
resident city of Springfield. Every care was 
bestowed upon his education, and, after a 
thorough training in the public schools and 
under private tutors, he matriculated at Yale 
College, from which great institution of learn- 
ing he was graduated in the class of 1872. 
Following this he was associated with the cler- 
ical force of the leading mercantile house of 
Chicago, that of John A. Farwell & Co., until 
his capability of successfully holding public of- 
fice was recognized by his appointment to a 
position in the state auditor's office, which po- 
sition brought him into prominence in polit- 
ical movements and he soon became the secre- 
tary of the Illinois state board of railway and 
warehouse commissioners. This lucrative po- 
sition he held for two years, when failing 
health caused his resignation and he retired to 
the rural quiet of the paternal homestead farm, 
there to endeavor to recuperate and rebuild his 
shattered physical powers. This improvement 
did not proceed as speedilv as he desired, and 
in t88o he concluded to try the climate of the 
West, and came to Blackfoot. Idaho, his pres- 
ent residence, reaching that active little center 
of industry in August. It is said that "No 
sooner had he sfot the dust beaten out of his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



609 



clothes than he engaged to take a band of 
cattle to Cheyenne. This was a three-months 
trip, a tedious and in many ways a disagree- 
able one, but it was just the thing for him, 
as he was completely restored to health during 
this period. He often reverts with pleasure to 
this first exeperience with Western life along 
the trail, and, when in happy mood, relates 
with zest his experiences while a cowboy." 
On his return from Cheyenne he was em- 
ployed at the Fort Hall Indian agency, where 
his brother, Jesse K.. was the efficient surgeon, 
until he received the appointment of United 
States marshal of Idaho. This office he held 
from August 25, 1882, to September 1, 1886, 
and during this time he gave no just cause of 
complaint. He was the target of the Mor- 
mon leaders, however, because he was the head 
and front of the anti-Mormon party of Idaho. 
This party he organized in southeastern Idaho, 
and he made several arrests, succeeded in hav- 
ing many polygamous Mormons convicted 
during his. term of office, and no doubt did as 
much as any man of the territory to crush the 
power of Mormonism. The fearless and ag- 
gressive stand he took in this direction made 
him conspicuous in the politics of the terri- 
tory, and when the Republicans cast about for 
a standard bearer they selected him as being 
the most available man in the party and he 
was made the candidate of both the Republican 
and anti-Mormon parties for delegate to the 
Fiftieth Congress, at the polls receiving 7,842 
votes against 7,416 cast for Hon. John Hailey, 
that old warhorse of the Democracy. 

Mr. Dubois was reelected to the next Con- 
gress by a complimentary majority over Hon. 
James H. Hawley and served with great ac- 
ceptability until he vigorously supported the 
admission of Idaho as a state in 1890, thus 
terminating his term of office. At the assem- 
bling of the First state Legislature, Hon. 
■George L. Shoup and W. J. McConnell were 



elected as United States senators. Mr. Mc- 
Connell drew the short term, which only 
lasted until March 4, 189 1, and at the same 
first session of the Legislature, Mr. Dubois 
was elected as United States senator for six 
years to succeed Mr. McConnell, but later,, on 
a question of eligibility, Judge W. H. Claggett 
was elected to the same office. Mr. Dubois 
was, however, by Congress declared elected, 
when Judge Claggett contested for the seat. 
At the session of the Legislature of 1896-7 
Mr. Dubois was defeated by Hon. Henry Heit- 
feld. 

In December, 1896, Mr. Dubois, who was 
a delegate from Idaho to the Republican na- 
tional convention at St. Louis, was displeased 
at the action of the convention in declaring in 
favor of the gold standard and walked indig- 
nantly out of that body and aligned himself 
with the Silver Republican party during its 
existence. During the time elapsing between 
the termination of his first senatorial term of 
office and his election to the same office in 
1900, Mr. Dubois took an ocean voyage to 
China and was thereafter influential in vari- 
ous matters of importance both to the state 
and the nation, still continuing active in polit- 
ical affairs. He was elected again to the 
United States senate in 1900 as a Democrat, 
in opposition to Hon. George L. Shoup, Re- 
publican, and his affiliations are now altogether 
with that political organization, his senatorial 
term expiring on March 4, 1907. 

Senator Dubois stands as one who, in all 
the important public services which the peo- 
ple of Idaho have entrusted to his call, has 
kept his ermine as a public man unsullied, for 
over his record falls no shadow of wrong or 
suspicion of evil. His unbending integrity of 
character, his fearlessness in the discharge of 
all official duties, his earnest labors in and out 
of office for the welfare of Idaho and the puri- 
fication of its civilization, as well as his appre- 



D T O 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ciation of all responsibilities which have rested 
upon him, constitute him as one whom the citi- 
zens of his adopted state worthily delight to 
honor. Two things are worthy of especial note 
in his public career. At a time in the terri- 
torial life of Idaho when there was a strong 
movement for the disintegration of the terri- 
tory by annexing the five northern counties to 
Washington, Mr. Dubois stood like a rock in 
opposition to this scheme, and his wise coun- 
sels and determined opposition were potent 
factors in the relinquishment of the plan. 
Again, in the question of acquiring statehood, 
although this would deprive him of one of the 
highest positions in the republic, Mr. Dubois. 
with a true patriotism, worked like a tiger 
unceasingly, day and night, until the coveted 
statehood was gained, and largely through his 
personal ability, persistency and zeal. 

Senator Dubois has been a Freemason since 
1876. having been made a Mason at Spring- 
field. 111., in that year He now maintains 
memberships in the lodge, chapter and com- 
manderv of Pocatelln. Idaho, and in the Mys- 
tic Shrine. 

On January 11, 1899. Mr. Dubois wedded 
Miss Edna Whited, a native of Illinois, and a 
daughter of William and Mary (Maxfield) 
Whited, her ancestry having been Americans 
for several generations. Two winsome chil- 
dren have come to the pleasant Blackfoot 
home of the Senator and wife, Elizabeth, born 
on March 17, 1900, and Margaret, born on 
December 23, 1902. 

JOHN E. PINCOCK. 

There is a magnificent truth expressed in 
the old-time aphorism. "Blood will tell." and 
the old ancestral traits of strength, character 
and potential ability are often displayed in a 
remarkable degree in descendants who have 
lost all knowledge of the remote ancestor 



whose virility is the source of their own en- 
erg}- and success. In the veins of Bishop John 
E. Pincock flows the blood of two ancient fam- 
ilies of the British Isles, the origin of the pa- 
ternal name and antiquity in England being 
lost in the mists of far-gone ages, but it is 
probable, from the large numbers of families 
of that name known to have existed in various 
sections of England early in the Sixteenth .Cen- 
tury, and the high standing of man}- of them, 
that the name was prevalent scion after sur- 
names came to be used. The maternal ances- 
try, as indicated by the name, goes back, 
through generation after generation, to the 
Douglasses of early Scottish history, the 
mightiest of the many mighty clans of the early 
davs. So it is not far that we have to search 
for the primal source of the ability, straight- 
forward purpose and success, transparent in- 
tegrity, single-minded loyalty to duty and 
courageous conviction which have ever been 
exemplified in the life and deeds of the sub- 
ject of this review. 

Bishop Pincock was horn at Kaysville. 
Utah, on December 16. 1853. tne son °f J onn 
and Isabella (Douglas) Pincock, both of whom 
were born in Lancaster, England, and in their 
youth came to the United States and to Mis- 
souri, where the father was for some years 
engaged in boating on the Missouri and Mis- 
sissippi rivers. Here they met and were mar- 
ried, coming to Utah in 1851, like many of 
the early immigrants, with little financial rein- 
forcement save strong bodies and willing 
hands, and, first locating at Kaysville, a short 
time after the birth of our subject they re- 
moved to the advancing town of Ogden, with 
whose subsequent prosperity the}- have since 
been identified, the father taking up land and 
devoting himself to its development and im- 
provement and to the raising of stock and. 
greatly to the benefit of the community of 
farmers, owning and conducting a threshing 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



6ii 



outfit for many years, and here the parents 
now reside, the evening of their days passing 
in the consciousness of lives well lived, in the 
loyal friendship of a large circle of friends and 
having the love and veneration of children and 
children's children. 

Commencing life for himself at eighteen 
years of age after acquiring a solid and prac- 
tical education in the excellent schools of 
Ogden, Mr. Pincock became connected with 
the construction operations of the Union Pa- 
cific Railroad, continuing to be employed 
therein and in the construction of the Central 
Pacific until the roads were fully completed, 
thereafter engaging in agricultural operations 
until 187 1, when he was made baggagemaster 
on the Central Pacific, his route being between 
Ogden, Utah, and Winnemucca, Nev. The 
care and attention displayed in this vocation 
was such that he was continued in this posi- 
tion for six years, his connection with the road 
being only terminated by his resignation. 
Through his steady industry he had acquired 
some capital which he thought he could invest 
in the Upper Valley of the Snake River to 
his permanent advantage and also acquire a 
home and established position and be his own 
master, and, accordingly, in 1883, he visited 
the new settlements, in what is now Fremont 
county, Idaho, and found the prospects so fa- 
vorable, that in May, 1884, he located in the 
valley, taking up a homestead of 160 acres 
two miles west of Teton City, where his in- 
dustry, energy and wise and discriminating 
endeavors have transformed the original wide- 
stretching tract of sagebrush lands into one of 
the valuable, productive and attractive homes 
of the entire valley and the center of large 
farming and stockgrowing operations. Essen- 
tially progressive, courageous and a moving 
force among his associates, life in this new land 
was full of opportunities which he has had the 
nerve to seize and the capacity to improve, and 



his force of character, guided by high moral 
instincts, sterling honesty and religious integ'- 
rity, have constituted him a power in all so- 
cial, business, civil and ecclesiastical circles of 
the county of his adoption. Prosperous in 
business and financial affairs, it has been no 
covetous hand which gathered up his rich in- 
crease, for the acquisition has been freely used 
to aid the needy, to encourage enterprise, to 
promote all good works and to make the com- 
munity better and happier. In the Demo- 
cratic political ranks he has given earnest and 
effective service, being the present chairman of 
the Democratic county central committee, his 
ability for capably holding official positions be- 
ing often recognized by his party associates in 
his nomination to responsible places in the 
gift of the people. He was made the nominee 
of his party in 1894 to jointly represent Bing- 
ham, Bannock, Blaine and Fremont counties 
in the Idaho Legislature, his name giving 
strength to the ticket, but sharing" in the gen- 
eral defeat. Also in the same campaign, the 
first election of Fremont county, he was nomi- 
nated and defeated as a candidate for the pro- 
bate judgeship, in 1896 being nominated and 
elected as the third sheriff holding office in 
Fremont county. In 1898 he was nominated 
and elected assessor and collector of the 
county, in 1900 nominated and elected county 
commissioner, and later receiving the chair- 
manship of the board, serving his term of 
three years with great acceptability to his con- 
stituents, being renominated for commission- 
er in T902, but owing to the peculiar exigen- 
cies of the campaign suffering defeat at the 
polls. 

It is impossible in a volume of this char- 
acter to enumerate all of the commercial and 
business activities in which Mr. Pincock has 
been a forceful factor, but one important one 
must not be passed by. He was a corporator 
of the Rexburg Milling Co., and from the first 



6l2 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



was its president and manager, retaining still 
the presidency. Originally built to run by 
steam, under Mr. Pincock's administration a 
canal of nine miles in length was constructed 
to furnish water power and a constant and 
less expensive motive force than steam was 
provided and is in effective operation. 

From early childhood an earnest and a con- 
scientious believer in the doctrines enunciated 
by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
Saints, he has given faithful service to its in- 
terests, and has efficiently served in important 
offices of trust, being chosen counsellor to 
Bishop George Davis of the Wilford ward in 
1888, and after effectively discharging the 
functions of that office for five consecutive 
years, he was. in June. 1893. set apart as the 
bishop of the Teton ward, being still the 
satisfactory incumbent of the dignified po- 
sition. 

On February 27, 1878, Miss Alice P. Rich- 
ards became the wife of the subject of this 
review, being the daughter of Samuel W. and 
Mary A. (Parker) Richards, natives of Ver- 
mont, who came to Utah prior to 1850 and 
located at Salt Lake City, where the father 
diligently wrought as a carpenter. He was a 
member of the first city council, became promi- 
nent in other ways and has since then main- 
tained the family home. "On the 1st of May, 
1852, Samuel W. Richards was placed in 
charge of the British mission, and on Septem- 
ber 30th was appointed agent of the emigra- 
tion company." — Bancroft's History of Utah, 
page 416. He was also appointed a regent of 
the University of Deseret on its incorporation 
in 1850. The following named children have 
come to grace and bless the home of Bishop 
Pfncock: John F., Mary A.. Henry D., Rich- 
ard P.. Samuel W., William A., Howard. 
Edith, Carrie, Parley P. (died aged thirteen 
months). 



CHARLES ROMRIELLE. 

One of the strong characters of the pio- 
neer period of the West, in which he gave 
most valiant and effective service in resisting 
and guarding against the attacks of the nu- 
merous hostile Indians, Charles Romrielle. 
who was also one of the pioneer settlers of 
Bear Lake county. Idaho, where he now holds 
his residence, has for many years been active 
in aiding the onward movement, of the forces 
of civilization and been a most useful memlier 
of the Mormon church. He was born in the 
beautiful island of Jersey, in the English Chan- 
nel, not far from the coast of France, on May 
17. 1843. being the son of Francis and Mary 
(Billow) Romrielle, the family being an an- 
cient one in Jersey. In 1855. when he was but 
twelve years of age, he came with his parents 
to the United States, they being zealous Mor- 
mons who desired the full advantages of 
church privileges, and from that early period 
he has been connected with the marvelous 
growth of the West, doing ably his part in the 
general improvements. His mother died in 
May. 1866. and the father in October, 1872, 
both having impressed themselves upon the 
hearts of the people by their numerous good 
qualities and the consistency of their religious 
belief. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Romrielle went 
to the new country of Cache Valley. Utah, and 
for the greater part of two and one-half years 
he was there located he was on guard against 
Indians. For five years thereafter he was at 
work in the canyons near Ogden. thence go- 
ing to the newlv-laid-out town of Laketown. 
where he remained for twelve years aiding in 
building up the town and also carrying on 
farming. Following this he migrated to Ash- 
ley Fork, Wyo., in search of a satisfactory lo- 
cation for a home for his family, hut finding 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



613 



nothing there to meet his wishes, he traveled 
into the southeastern part of Idaho and made 
the family home at Garden Creek, now Robin. 
From that time to the present writing his resi- 
dence has been in Oneida and Bear Lake coun- 
ties, occupying his present ranch about twenty- 
five years. He has seen great changes since he 
struck the trail into this section and he has so 
improved and developed his property by his 
steady and persistent endeavors that it has 
largely increased in value, being one of the 
best improved farms of the valley. From the 
first farming has been his chief industry, al- 
though he has devoted attention for many 
years to stockraising. A quiet, unostentatious 
individual, he has not cared to meddle in the 
excitement of politics, although holding de- 
cided views on all public matters of a local 
character, but in the higher realms of the ac- 
tivities of his church he has rendered faithful 
and appreciated service in numerous official 
capacities, holding the position of second coun- 
sellor to the bishop of his ward for thirteen 
years. 

On December 1, 1865, Mr. Romrielle was 
united in marriage with Miss Mary Marley, a 
daughter of John C. and Gwendolyn G. (Mat- 
thews) Marley, the father being a native of 
Devonshire, England, and the mother of the 
south of Wales. Her parents came to Utah 
in 1861 and after eighteen months' residence 
removed to Idaho, her father being a miner 
by occupation and receiving severe injuries 
from a coal' slide in Pennsylvania. He died 
in Bear I.ake county on July 4, 1898 ; the 
mother, a hale and hearty lady, is now living 
near Robin, Idaho, at the dignified age of 
eighty-five years. We append as a suitable 
close of this memoir a brief record of the chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Romrielle : Mary Ann, 
born at Ogden, Utah, on December 1, 1866; 
.Charles A., Jr.,' born at Ogden, June 29, 1868; 
George H., born in Laketown, Utah, on 



March 17, 1870; Lorenzo, at Laketown, on 
March 24, 1872, died February 10, 1899, in 
Montana; Sarah J., Laketown, November 7, 
1875 ; Walter, Laketown, January 3, 1879 ; 
Elizabeth G, born at Robin, Idaho (as were all 
the younger ones), on February 15, 1881 ; 
Laura P., born March 20, 1883; Hyrum, born 
January 3, 1885, died in infancy; Frances E,, 
born March 28, 1889. 

ROBERT S. Wx\TSON. 

Robert S. Watson was bom March 6, 1861, 
at Smithfield, Cache Valley, Utah, the son of 
William and Hannah (Storey) Watson, na- 
tives of England, who came in 1859 and set- 
tled at Smithfield. They crossed the plains 
with ox teams and the father worked on the 
Utah Southern Railroad as foreman of con- 
struction. He lived at Smithfield eight years 
and then moved to Farmington, where he re- 
mained until his death, which occurred July 26, 
1 901, aged sixty- four years. The subject's 
mother now lives at Smithfield, aged sixty- 
two years. 

R. S. Watson started out for himself at 
the age of nineteen years and worked at farm 
work in Utah until 1884, when he came to 
Menan, Fremont county, Idaho, and settled 
two and one-half miles west of the townsite 
on a homestead of 160 acres. His principal 
business is farming and stockraising. He has 
bought forty acres and has since sold and 
traded all but forty acres, which is located one 
miles east of Menan. He helped to build the 
first irrigating canal in this section of coun- 
try, and has always been a stockholder in what 
is now called the Long Island Irrigating Co. 
He also helped to build the first meeting house 
here for the Latter Day Saints. He is a stanch 
supporter of the Democratic party, and in the 
Mormon church he was ordained an elder in 
1881. He was married December 4, 1881, at 



614 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Salt Lake City, to Laura Gibson, the 
daughter of Robert and Lacinda (Littlefield) 
Gibson, and they have become the parents of 
the following children : Robert, Abby, Edna 
(deceased). Alta, Evington, Wanetta (de- 
ceased). Thain and Glen. 

JOSEPH P. SIMMONS. 

Among the honored pioneers of southeast- 
ern Idaho there is none held in higher esteem 
and honor than the estimable subject of this 
sketch. Joseph P. Simmons, who has played 
an important part in furthering the progress 
of this state as one of the early and represent- 
ative stockmen of his section, being also an 
historic character from the fact of his being 
the first white male child born in Utah to the 
family of a settler, his birth occurring on Feb- 
ruary ii, 1847. His parents were William 
B. and Mary A. (Taylor) Simmons, the 
mother being of English lineage, and the fa- 
ther a French Canadian and a sailor. They 
came to LTtah but a short time previous to the 
birth of their son, the father soon going on to 
California, returning, however, to L T tah in 
1850, and after residing there for eight vears 
coming to the region of Bannock county, Idaho, 
being a pioneer of Idaho as well as Utah and 
California. He was extremely active as a pub- 
lic man, and assisted greatly in the building up 
of many of the early new settlements. He died 
in Farmington, LTtah, in 1889, his widow dy- 
ing near Idaho Falls on March iy, 1900. 

The only attendance at school that the sub- 
ject of this memoir secured was three months 
at Ogden, but by self-instruction, observation 
and experience he has obtained a well-rounded- 
out knowledge and is learned in many things 
beyond those taught in school books. At the 
age of seventeen years he went out into the 
world on his own responsibility, his first occu- 
pation being herding, which he steadilv fol- 



lowed for a period of nearly eight years, then 
he became a rancher, settling on land in Marsh 
Valley, where he resided twelve years, thence 
proceeding to his present location, where his 
earnest industry and steady application have 
been generously rewarded. He is now the pro- 
prietor of a valuable ranch of 200 acres and de- 
votes himself to the raising of large crop- of 
hay. also to the raising of sheep, of which he 
is now running a band of 400 head. 

Mr. Simmons first married Miss Emma J. 
Douglas, a daughter . of Ralph and Jane 
(Jones) Douglas, of the very early pioneers 
of Utah. She died after thirteen months of 
married life, and subsequently he formed a 
matrimonial alliance with Miss Mary E. Ben- 
nett, a daughter of Alfred A. and Lucy (Saxe) 
Bennett, natives of Iowa, who were also num- 
bered among the early immigrants into L T tah. 
and after a residence of some years in that 
territory came to Soda Springs. Idaho, where 
the mother died in December. 1895, and the 
father now resides. Three children constitute 
the family of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons. Jody, 
born October 15, 1886. Emma B.. born Febru- 
ary 15, 1887, and LeRoy. born March 19. 
1897. 

Energetic, genial and a lover' of society. 
Mr. Simmons has a large circle of friends and 
in the Modern Woodmen of America, to which 
he belongs, he stands in prominent relation- 
ship, being one of the three managers of his 
lodge. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons are extensively 
and pleasantly known to a large number and 
their friends are as numerous as their list of 
acquaintances. 

OLE TRAXSTRUM. Jr. 

Among the prominent, successful and pro- 
gressive citizens of Bear Lake county. Idaho, 
the gentleman whose name stands at the head 
of this article holds a conspicuous place, being' 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



6i< 



a man of forceful ability and a representative 
stockman of the state. Ole Transtrum, Jr., 
was born in Hyrum, Cache county, Utah, on 
March 17, 1864, being the son of Ole and 
Hannah (Nelson) Transtrum, natives of Swe- 
den, where their ancestry goes back in an un- 
broken line for many generations. Becoming 
converts of the Mormon faith in their native 
country, the parents of the subject crossed the 
Atlantic and made their home in Utah in its 
early pioneer period, and after a residence 
there of two years came to St. Charles, Idaho, 
and with persistent courage and untiring in- 
dustry began the labor of creating a profitable 
home from the naturally unpromising condi- 
tions of the wild country. In this they have 
been highly prospered, father and son work- 
ing" together in harmony, and steadily adding 
to their financial reinforcement. This has been 
done in such a manner that they stand among 
the best people of the community, who have 
honored the parents for their intrinsic virtues 
and are pleased at the success which has come 
to the son as a fitting sequel to years of honest 
application to the departments of husbandry 
to which he has devoted his well-directed ef- 
forts. The success he has attained is evi- 
denced by his ownership of two finely im- 
proved ranches, one of 200 acres near Bloom- 
ington, and one of 290 acres at St. Charles, 
on which he annually produces valuable 
crops of hay. etc., and which are the 
headquarters of stockraising operations 
of great scope and importance, his 
valuable herds consisting largely of graded 
Hereford cattle. Deeply interested in all mat- 
ters tending to advance and conserve the wel- 
fare of the community, Mr. Transtrum is a 
director of the St. Charles Water Co., and 
has been called to highly responsible positions 
in both church and state, serving with conceded 
ability as a county commissioner from 1898 
to 1900, while he has held with acceptability 



many minor church offices and is now the first 
counsellor to the bishop of his ward. 

Mr. Transtrum was united in marriage 
with Miss Emily Sorenson, a daughter of John 
and Bendecta (Austerline) Sorenson, the fa- 
ther being a native of Denmark and the mother 
of Sweden, both emigrating from their native 
lands, coming to Utah and later to St. Charles, 
where the father now resides, the mother hav- 
ing passed from earth. The family circle of 
Mr. and Mrs. Transtrum is rounded out by 
five winsome children, whose names and births 
we here record : Chester Ole, born November 
11, 1890; Olive B., born September 21, 1892; 
Whitney J., born December 6, 1894; James 
Nelson, born January 24, 1899; Lillian L., 
born October 8, 1902. 

Mr. Transtrum is one of the best types of 
a successful man who has carved out his own 
prosperity. As a citizen he is very public-spir- 
ited and charitable, in his life and manners he 
is plain and unostentatious, and in the many 
stirring events of business and social life in 
which he has participated he has never for a 
moment forgotten to be a high-minded, mod- 
est and altogether honorable man, and in con- 
sequence thereof he has many friends and is 
one of the accepted leaders of the people. 

JOHN WINDLEY. 

Born in Lestershire. England, on August 
4, 1838, a son of William and Elizabeth 
(Mitchell) Windley, the father, descending 
from an ancient family of Great Britain and 
being one of the largest merchants of Lester- 
shire, it must have required unusual fortitude, 
courage and self-reliance for Mr. Windley to 
leave the home and friends of his youth in 
his twenty-third year, when his apprenticeship 
as a brassdresser in Birmingham had just ex- 
pired, to make a home and a successful ca- 
reer in new lands and among a strange peo- 



6i6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



pie. This, however, he did, being encouraged 
in his undertaking by the efforts and represen- 
tation of the faithful emissaries of the Mor- 
mon church, to whose teachings he gave good 
heed, and in 1861 he made the long journey 
from home to the then wild west of Utah, lo- 
cating in Salt Lake City. Thereafter he fol- 
lowed Numbering and farming in Utah until 
1864, thence coming to St. Charles, Idaho, to 
take advantage of the undeveloped resources 
of that then virgin territory, and securing a 
valuable property in real estate, which he has 
rescued from its original sagebrush desolation 
until, to speak figuratively, it now "blossoms 
as the rose." By steady and persevering in- 
dustry and thrift he has so transformed his es- 
tate of fifty acres that few of his countrymen, 
who have never seen the rapid progress of the 
West, and especially the intermountain region, 
would ever dream that for ages the land lay 
wild and unprofitable, a desert in every sense 
of the word. The secret of his success has 
been the judicious and plentiful application 
'if water, and from the first he has given care- 
ful attention to irrigation, l>eing interested in 
every company that has had for its object the 
procuring of water for the land, and he is now 
a large stockholder in the St. Charles Irriga- 
tion Canal Co., of which he has served as 
efficient secretary for a long term of years. 
In connection with this primal necessity. Mr. 
YVindley has given care and attention to stock- 
raising and has done much in the direction of 
improving the character and quality of the 
stock raised in this vicinity, being considered a 
leader in this important field. Energetic, in- 
dustrious, social and enterprising, it is little 
wonder that his endeavors have been pros- 
pered, nor that he should occupy a high posi- 
tion among the people who have known him 
long and well. 

In 1890, in connection with his other enter- 
prises, among them that of large interests in 
extensive sawmills, he engaged in a successful 



merchandising trade at St. Charles and now 
displays a fine line of furniture and general 
house-furnishing goods, his trade having been 
cumulative in a rapid degree from the first. 
In public matters Mr. Windley is a highly in- 
terested observer from the viewpoint of the 
Republican party, in which he has l)een very 
active, being called to discharge important 
public functions, holding the office of justice 
of the peace for years and numerous minor of- 
fices creditably and capably, while in church 
relations he has been one of the counsellors 
of the bishop for the long period of twenty- 
eight years. In many other ways he has ren- 
dered most capable service to his church, being 
considered a leader in the local organization 
and a man of wise prudence whose advice is of 
inestimable value. 

On April 15, 1861, an important element 
in the subsequent success of Mr. Windley was 
introduced therein through his marriage with 
Miss Mary Foster, a daughter of William and 
Ann (Morris) Foster, who came direct from 
their native England to St. Charles, where 
they ever after maintained their residence, the 
father, who was for a long- time in a respon- 
sible position in the freight department of one 
of the leading English railroads, engaging in 
successful farming at St. Charles, his death 
occurring on July 23. 1900, at the venerable 
age of ninety-one years; his wife died on Sep- 
tember 26, 1895. A brief record of the chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Windley will appropri- 
ately close this sketch: Anna Maria was born 
in February, 1862: Charles J. was the first 
white child born in St. Charles, his birth oc- 
curring on June 3, 1864; Frederick W., born 
May 29. 1866; Mary E.. born July io, 1868; 
Alma E., born in March, 1S70, died in in- 
fancy; Arthur E.. born in August. [873, died 
at the age of four years; Walter T.. born 
January 3, 1875; George A., born in July, 
1876. died in infancy: Fliza F.. born in Feb- 
ruary. 1882. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



617 



DR. OSCAR B. STEELY. 

Greater than the responsibility of almost 
any other line of human endeavor is that which 
rests upon the physician ; the issues of life and 
death are in his hands, and the physician's 
sikll and power must be his own ; not by gift, 
by purchase or influence can he acquire it. If 
he would retain relative precedence, it must 
come as the result of superior skill, knowledge 
and ability, and these qualifications are pos- 
sessed in a marked degree by Dr. Oscar B. 
Steely, who is not only numbered among the 
representative physicians and surgeons of the 
state, recognition of this fact havirtg been 
made by Governor McConnell in his ~appoint- 
ment as surgeon general of Idaho, but his ex- 
ecutive ability, force of character and strong 
personal magnetism have caused his election 
and reelection to the responsible office of mayor 
of the progressive city of Pocatello, where he 
resides. 

Doctor Steely was born in Belleville, Pa., 
on August 22, 1862, a son of William and 
Sarah (Baker) Steely, natives of Pennsyl- 
vania, to which commonwealth his early pa- 
ternal German ancestors emigrated in the early 
Colonial days, as did the progenitors of his 
mother, who came from England at about the 
same period of time, and both his maternal 
and paternal great-grandfathers patriotically 
served in the long and bloody contest of the 
Revolutionary war. 

Doctor Steely received his preliminary lit- 
erary education in the public schools of his 
native place, thereafter continuing his studies 
in the Bloomsburg State Normal School and 
Literary Institute, from which he was gradu- 
ated with a high standing, thereafter matricu- 
lating at the famous University of Pennsyl- 
vania, from which he was graduated in 1883, 
in the meantime engaging in pedagogic work 
in Philadelphia, where he held the office of su- 



pervising principal of the public schools of the 
city for four years, thereafter entering Jeffer- 
son Medical College, where he completed the 
prescribed course, being graduated therefrom 
with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1891. 

Thus thoroughly prepared and equipped 
for his profession, he served one year as sur- 
geon in the Jefferson Hospital, and in 1892 
located in Pocatello, Idaho, and entered at 
once upon a successful and far-reaching prac- 
tice, being the official physician and surgeon 
of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, of which 
he is still in incumbency, and he has been very 
successful both as a physician and a surgeon. 
His private practice in both medicine and sur- 
gery is one of the largest in the state, con- 
trolling a large clientele of leading citizens, 
and manifesting a liberality and generosity in 
his treatment of the poor and unfortunate 
which have bound them to him as with hooks 
of steel. He stands high in medical circles, 
was a member of the Pennsylvania State Med- 
ical Association and the Association of Mili- 
tary Surgeons of the United States, while his 
papers and articles on medical and surgical 
subjects take rank as authoritative, and his in- 
cumbency of the office of surgeon general was 
marked by a careful, conservative, but at the 
same time progressive administration of the 
duties, connected therewith. 

A man of strong character and unbounded 
energy, he has ever stood true in all the rela- 
tions of life and has acquired a high and well- 
deserved popularity. He was a candidate of 
the Progressive Young Men of Pocatello for 
mayor of that city in 1902 and after a stirring 
canvass was elected by a very complimentary 
vote, and he is now in the incumbency of the 
office, having been elected on the Republican 
ticket in 1903 by a handsome majority to the 
second term, running- far ahead of the rest of 
the ticket, and thus proving himself not only 
a very efficient but an exceedingly popular 



6i8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



mayor, ever maintaining a high dignity and 
performing the duties of the position to the 
decided advantage of the city. 

In county, state and national political af- 
fairs he has been an active force in the Re- 
publican party, discharging with fidelity and 
advantage to the people every trust his party 
has reposed in him. In the last Republican 
state convention he was distinctively honored 
by being placed in candidacy for governor of 
the state, lacking only three votes of securing 
the nomination. In educational lines his influ- 
ence and labors have been effective and far- 
reaching, and he is at present the president of 
the school board of Pocatello, and he has been 
an earnest and public-spirited member of the 
board for the last six years. Fraternally he 
has attained the Knight Templar degree in 
the Masonic order, being the high priest of the 
local chapter, and is affiliated with the Benev- 
olent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights 
of Pythias, Woodmen of the World and the 
Eagles. 

Tn Denver, Colo., on December 31, 1900, 
Dr. Steely was united in matrimony with Miss 
Bernice H. Smith, a native of Massachusetts, 
and a daughter of Edwin K. and Helen A. 
Smith, also natives of the old Bay state.' They 
have one son, Hobart H., and their attractive 
hi mie possesses a most pleasing atmosphere 
of cultured hospitality. 

It is not too much to say of Dr. Steely, as 
has been said by several who are excellent 
judges of character, that his qualifications 
would dignify and elevate any office in the gift 
of the people of his state. He has held re- 
sponsible positions with great ability, has 
adorned every walk in life in which he has 
been found, and is an inspiration and example 
to good men of all classes, while his advice is 
held most valuable in business and financial 
circles, and his careful and conscientious 
execution of every duty has gained him high 
prestige. 



GEORGE M. SMITH. 

One of the- best known, most energetic, 
popular and intelligent citizens of that portion 
of southern Idaho where he maintains his 
home and conducts a prosperous ranching busi- 
ness on his valuable and eligibly located estate 
of 440 acres, George M. Smith, the immediate 
subject of this writing, is a man well-entitled 
to the prosperity which surrounds him, com- 
ing as it does from his own industry and capa- 
bility, being almost entirely the result of his 
own efforts. He was born on April n, 1865, 
at Draper, Salt Lake county, Utah, a son of 
John S. and Jane (Wadleigh) Smith, who emi- 
grated from England to Utah in 1849. tne ^ a " 
ther, who was a wheelwright by trade and oc- 
cupation in England, becoming a farmer in 
his American home. He has been a conspicu- 
ous personage in the Mormon church, holding 
the office of counsellor to the bishop of Salt 
Lake stake for many years and now being one 
of the patriarchs. He resides in Kaysville. 
Utah, hale, hearty and vigorous, superintend- 
ing his temporal affairs as in early years, be- 
ing now ninety-four years of age. His faith- 
ful wife, the mother of George M. Smith, 
passed on to those activities that have no 
weariness, in May, 1888. Her birthplace was 
in England and her parents were William and 
Mary (Seville) Wadleigh. 

George M. Smith attended the schools of 
Kaysville until he was sixteen years of age, 
then, having a strong physique and a love for 
out-of-door labor, for ten vears he was ac- 
tively employed in farming and herding stock 
on bis father's ranch, becoming well versed in 
the art and mystery of those departments of 
husbandry which are conducted by the agri- 
culturists of the intermountain country. His 
attention had been called to the opportunity af- 
forded in southeastern Idaho for a man of his 
tastes and experience and be determined to 
personally test the matter and. making his des- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



619 



filiation the Gentile Valley, he reached the lo- 
cality of his present home on June 2, 
18S1. He at once took possession of a por- 
tion of his present estate and commenced the 
arduous work of its development. He has 
given diligent and unintermitting labor in this 
direction and his pleasant and attractive home 
shows that he has not labored in vain. His 
attention is now chiefly given to the raising of 
stock, of which he is running some fine speci- 
mens, his land being largely grazing land and 
his principal crop large yields of hay. He 
bas ever taken much interest in public affairs 
of a local character, is a director of the Gen- 
tile Valley Creamery Co., of which he was one 
of the originators and is now a stockholder. 
In church relations he holds a high standing, 
being consecrated as first president of the Sev- 
enties on December 8, 1892, and ordained a 
high counsellor in August, 1897, still being the 
faithful incumbent of that office. In earlier 
years he filled a mission in North Carolina for 
two years with satisfactory results. 

On January 13, 1881, Mr. Smith formed 
a matrimonial alliance with Miss Mary E. 
Woolley, a daughter of Edwin D. and Ellen 
(Holding) Woolley, natives respectively of 
Pennsylvania and England. Coming to Utah 
in 1848, Mr. Woolley became prominent in 
both civil and religious affairs, serving for sev- 
eral years as county recorder, holding the of- 
fice of bishop for a long term of years and 
dying in October, 1881. The mother sur- 
vived him and is now living in Paris, Idaho, 
at the venerable age of eighty-three years. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born 
nine children, whose names and dates of birth 
and death follow: Edna M., born November 
3, 1881 ; G. Seville, born March 3, 1883; Er- 
nest H., born April 29, 1885 ; Elmer W., born 
October 25, 1887; R. Wendell, born August 7. 
1890; Michael P., born February -1, 1893, died 



in infancy; Edwin P., born May 26, '1896; 
Luella J., born September 1, 1898; Harold, 
born September 21, 1900, died in infancy. 

CHRIST JENSEN. 

Not many of the various countries of 
Europe who have given of their ablest sons to 
aid in the building of America, particularly that 
region universally known as the Great West, 
have been so liberal in proportion to their popu- 
lation as has the little independent kingdom 
of Denmark, whose robust and energetic and 
thrifty sons are found- in every state and terri- 
tory, doing most valuable service in the work 
of advancing civilization by their unstinted and 
effective labors. Among this number is Christ 
Jensen, now a prosperous rancher near Cleve- 
land, Idaho, which is his postoffice address. 
Mr. Jensen was born on July 11, 1858,' at 
Hjadstrup,- Denmark, the son of Jens and 
Mary (Hansen) Christensen, the birth of the 
father being on April 4, 1828, and that of the 
mother on February 9, 1825. The parental 
great-grandparents of the subject were John 
and Elsie Marie Christensen, of German an- 
cestry, and his grandparents were Christ and 
Mary Jorg'ensen. The grandfather served as a 
soldier for fourteen years in the great conti- 
nental wars in which France, Germany and 
England were the principal contesting powers 
and he won a well-deserved reputation for- his 
bravery and soldierly qualities. - The parents 
came to Utah in 1S71, being converts to the 
Mormon faith, and there resided until 1887, 
the father following his trade of mason, as he 
did in Denmark, and also engaged in ranching. 
In the last mentioned year he came to the wild 
region now Bannock county, Idaho, from that 
time devoting his energies to successful stock- 
raising, and the father held the office of coun- 
sellor to the bishop for many years. 



620 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



Christ Jensen had the advantage of the 
Utah schools until he was seventeen years of 
age, thereafter engaging in railroad construc- 
tion work for two years, then working at lum- 
bering and in the sawmills of Logan Canyon, 
following this employment by accompanying 
his people to Bear River City, being for a 
time connected with freighting operations. In 
1886 he came to his present location, secured 
a suitable tract of land and engaged in ranch- 
ing on his own account, having substantial and 
commodious buildings suitable to his purpose, 
and here he now resides, devoting his time 
and attention to the raising of cattle and large 
annual crops of hay, being prospered in his 
endeavors and having the reputation among 
his fellow citizens of being a good neighbor, 
an enterprising and useful member of society 
and an industrious man. 

Mr. Jensen married, on December 15, 
1 88 1, his bride being Miss Dorthea Hansen, a 
native of Eretslad, Fyen, Denmark, where she 
was born on December 21, 1859. She came 
to Utah direct from Denmark in 1878 with 
her parents, in company with other converts to 
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
Saints, they making their home in Bear River 
City, her father dying at the age of sixty-four 
years, while her grandmother is now in her 
ninety-eighth year. Mrs. Jensen is very active 
in church work, ably assisting her husband, 
who has held the office of ward teacher for a 
long term of years, also that of superintendent 
of the Sunday school of the ward and serving 
as a home missionary of this stake for two 
years. To Mr. and Mrs. Jensen have been 
born the following children : Luella, born 
January 5, 1883, at Bear River City, Utah; 
Elcana, born May 29, 1885 ; Mary Rosanna, 
born January 4, 1887: Penina, born October 
8, 1889; Letty, born April 12, 1891, deceased; 
Orlando R., born July 22, 1892, deceased; Ef- 
fie, born November 13, 1893; Leo, born July 



10, 1895; Lucy E., born May 22, 1897; Hans, 
born October 7, 1899, deceased; and Carl, 
who was born on July 11, 1898. 

ANDREW GRAY. 

One of the sterling citizens of that portion 
of Bannock county, Idaho, where he n< >w 
maintains his home and where he has devel- 
oped a valuable and productive farm of 160 
acres from its original sagebrush desert con- 
dition, Andrew Gray was born on November 
25, 1854, at Kirkentulloch, Scotland, descend- 
ing from ancient Scottish families who have 
resided in the "land of the heather and the 
hill" for unnumbered generations. He is a 
son of Samuel W. and Sarah Gray, and a 
grandson of Samuel and Martha (Ingalls) 
Gray, the grandmother coming to Utah in 
1878 and dying at Ogden at the advanced age 
of eighty-six years. Converted to the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by faith- 
ful missionaries laboring in their native land, 
the family of the father of the subject came 
to Utah in 1861, the parents now making their 
home in Inverary, Utah, where the mother is 
the president of the ward Relief Society. Of 
their eleven children nine are living, a daugh- 
ter having died at Mesa, Ariz., and a son at 
Inverary, Utah. 

Andrew Gray attended school in Beaver. 
Utah, beg'an work for himself at the age of 
twenty-three years and made his home in 
Idaho in 1885, selecting the location of his 
present residence on his first coming to the 
country. He has given diligent labor and 
earnest endeavor in the improvement of the 
land and has lived to witness a marked change 
in the condition of his own estate as well as in 
all the surrounding country. He has secured 
a good amount of water for irrigating pur- 
poses and the fertile soil never fails to respond 
to his cultivation with bounteous crops of hay 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



621 



and grain, running also a fine band of cattle. 
He was married on October 13, 1879, to Miss 
Frances C. Ames, a daughter of Clark and 
Frances J. (Darrin) Ames, the father having 
his birth in Maryland and the mother in Eng- 
land. They were residents of Utah for many 
years, the father being closely connected in an 
important way with the history of the state, 
holding many offices with acknowledged abil- 
ity, and being the captain of a church infantry 
company at the time of General Johnston's 
invasion of Utah, and commanding the guard 
at Ako Canyon, while in still earlier days his 
services were in great' demand as an Indian 
interpreter. He now resides in Wyoming, the 
mother of Mrs. Gray having been called to her 
eternal rest on December 3, 1899. All of her 
eleven children are living, and residents of 
Idaho and Wyoming. Mr. and Mrs. Gray 
have ten children, Clark P., born July 6, 188 1, 
who became a succesful teacher at the age of 
seventeen years; Sarah E., born January 13, 
1882; Andrew A., born November 18, 1883; 
Harriet A., born January 22, 1885 ; Frances 
C, born January 25, 1887; Letitia M., born 
November 12, 1889; Leo, born October 27, 
1S91 ; Ivy I., born March 18, 1894; Delia, 
born November 5, 1897; Gladys, born May 
30, 1900. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gray are heartily interested 
in all things that tend, to the betterment of the 
community, do their full quota in advancing 
the causes of education and religion, and are 
highly esteemed members of the community, 
having a large°circle of intimate friends among 
the best people of the county. 

JOHN J. BYBEE. 

Born in Clay county, Ind., on March 30, 
1840, a son of Absalom and Nancy (Walker) 
Bybee, the gentleman whose name heads this 
review is now one of the favored agriculturists 
of Bingham countv, Idaho, where his fertile 



and well-improved ranch of 160 acres is lo- 
cated in the immediate neighborhood of 
Downey postoffice, which is his address. His 
parents who were natives of Barren county, 
Ky., emigrated from Indiana, where they were 
prosperous farmers, in 1852, having cast in 
their allegiance with the Mormon church, of 
which they were most devoted members dur- 
ing their subsequent lives. In Utah the family 
home was first made in the vicinity of Ogden, 
but later was transferred to Box Elder county, 
where in the peaceful pursuits of agriculture 
were passed their remaining years, the father 
there dying in June, 1896, and the mother in 
November, 1898. 

Industry, honesty and good citizenship 
have ever been marked characteristics of John 
J. Bybee, whose education was acquired in the 
schools of Indiana and Utah, and in the 
healthful and invigorating rural surroundings 
of his father's farm he attained manhood with 
a sound and vigorous body and a clear and 
active mind, becoming well versed in the prac- 
tical knowledge and understanding of the 
branches of agriculture there conducted. At 
the age of twenty-one years he began life for 
himself by engaging in lumbering operations, 
thereafter conducting these and farm labors in 
various localities until he came to his present 
location in 1880, where he filed on 160 acres 
of government land, which under his earnest 
and indefatigable efforts has been most won- 
derfully changed from its original condition, 
being now a productive estate under a high 
degree of cultivation with a competent irriga- 
tion system to furnish that all-essential water, 
without which this entire intermountain re- 
gion would be a desert. 

Mr. Bybee as a good citizen is loyally in- 
terested in all movements whose objects are for 
the advancement of the community, the county 
and the state of his residence, while in political 
relations he is in full accord with the Repub- 
lican party, giving loyal service to its cause and 



622 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK. BEAR LAKE, 



candidates in the respective campaigns, at the 
same time, however, steadily holding aloof 
from public office or political candidacy, pre- 
ferring to devote his energies to the further im- 
provement of his already attractive home. 

On December 7, 1867, Mr. Bybee was 
united in marriage with Miss Sarah Lloyd, a 
daughter of William and Mary (Powley) 
Lloyd, natives of England, but of ancient 
Welsh ancestry, who came to the United 
States and to St. Louis, Mo.> in 1850, where 
Mr. Lloyd conducted merchandising for two 
years, then removing to Utah with his family, 
where his estimable wife died, at Ogden, in 
February, 1852. He thereafter conducted 
farming operations in the vicinity until his 
death, on July 22, 1894, making, however, a 
temporary residence in Idaho in 1878, being a 
man of many friends and a highly respected 
member of the Mormon church. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bybee have the following 
children: Harriet, born March 22. 1871 ; Alice 
B., March 22, 1874; Martha, November 17. 
1875: Absalom, April 17. 1876; Deseret and 
Julia (twins), February 22, 1877; William, 
September 26. 1S79. and Zella, born August 
5, 1882. 

HFXRY WAKLEY. 

Conspicuously and prosperously identified 
for a long term of years with the settlement 
and development of the southeastern section 
of Idaho, where he has maintained his resi- 
dence since 1864, Henry Wakley is well en- 
titled to that distinction that comes from be- 
ing a successful pioneer and representative 
\ "old-timer."' He was born in Hancock county. 
Mo., 'in March 2^, 1843, a son of John and 
Polly (Woodland) Wakley, natives respectivelv 
of the dominion of Canada and of the state 
of Virginia. They were early arrivals in Utah, 
making the wearisome and dangerous journey 
across the plains in 1848 and making their 



permanent home in Salt Lake City. There 
their son Henry received a valuable education, 
attained manhood and was engaged in varii >us 
occupations until 1864. when the great possi- 
bilities of Idaho, then almost entirely a virgin 
wilderness, attracted him and he has from that 
early date been an active factor in the opening 
up of that country to the forces of civilization 
and a valued member of society, serving his 
day and generation well in many departments 
of usefulness. From small and unpropitious 
beginnings in his Idaho home, which he 1' 1- 
cated in an eligible location in Bingham county, 
six miles west of Downey postofhce. which is 
his address, the thrift, enterprise, courage and 
endurance of Mr. Wakley have wrought most 
marvelous charges, his highly improved and 
well-watered estate now consisting of 370 acres 
of fertile land, on which are annually raised 
bounteous crops of grain and hay. the large 
stacks of the latter delighting the eye of a 
true farmer, and the little band of cattle which 
he first brought to this property has been suc- 
ceeded by numerous herds of superior graded 
Durhams. while large flocks of sheep contrib- 
ute their wealth to his coffers. This has not 
been done without incessant labor and great 
privations; the almost unbroken wilderness was 
then the home of wild beasts and wilder sav- 
ages, but these were patiently endured, and his 
unceasing industry has met a deserved and an 
abundant reward. 

In every field of improvement Mr. Wak- 
ley has been an active and an efficient worker : 
he has aided in every public enterprise, has as- 
sisted in the erection of all the public buildings 
of his ward and county, and has from the first 
been most prominent in the bringing of water 
to the parched sagebrush plains, being one of 
the pioneer and prominent stockholders in the 
Birch Creek Irrigation and Canal Co. In church 
relations, as well as civil affairs, his personality 
has been of marked value. His devout and 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



623 



deeply religious nature brought him early into 
official relations, he filled with credit several 
of the minor offices, was for the long term of 
twelve years counsellor to the presiding elder 
of his ward and in 189 1 he was ordained and 
consecrated as the bishop of the ward. In 
every relation of church and state he has ever 
held to a high ideal and rendered most benefi- 
cial and appreciated service. He now stands 
as an honored leader in the community he has 
aided so largely to become strong, important 
and successful, and after a life of nearly two 
score years in the midst of its activities, detrac- 
tion nor calumny dare not raise their heads 
against him, as his life has been an open book 
of good deeds, and his friends number the 
whole community. 

Miss Adelia Barnes, a daughter of Wil- 
liam and Frances (Chapman) Barnes, became 
the wife of Mr. Wakley, and from that time 
they have harmoniously aided each other along 
the journey of life. She was born on Decem- 
ber 9, 1859, at Kaysville, Utah, where her 
parents were long most valued citizens, her 
father being prominent in religious and pub- 
lic affairs and an efficient constable for years. 
They died at Kaysville, the mother in Sep- 
tember, 1876, and the father in November, 
1893, both leaving the record of unblemished 
character and the sincere friendship of the en- 
tire community. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wakley have a family of 
children of whom they may worthily be proud. 
Their names and a brief record follow: John 
William, born September 8, 18 — ; Charles 
Henry, born October 11, 18 — , now on mis- 
sionary duty for his church in New Zealand ; 
Willard, born February 25, 1880; James 
Thomas, born May 8, 188 1, died in infancy; 
Polly Frances, born April 15, 1882; Frederick 
H., born February 8, 1884; George Nathan, 
born April 25, 1886, and Adelia A., born No- 
vember 12, 1890. The charm of the home 



atmosphere is so strong that all of the chil- 
dren are yet members of the parental family 
circle and an old-fashioned and cordial West- 
ern hospitality is here dispensed to their nu- 
merous friends and also to the "stranger 
within its gates." 

HORACE P. NELSON. 

It has been well said that that country does 
not deserve freedom which does not honor its 
great men and it is equally true that no coun- 
try deserves freedom which does not honor its 
good men. Hence, all honor should be given 
to such men as Mr. Nelson, of Fish Haven, 
Idaho, who have ever lived truthful, honor- 
able and upright lives, by their labors and per- 
severing enterprise and industry adding to the 
universal wealth and happiness of the people. 
Mr. Nelson was horn on November 4, 1840, 
in the little kingdom of Denmark, Europe, 
which has sent so large a number of her capa- 
ble and intelligent sons to aid in building up 
the civilized institutions of the Great West. 
He is the son of Edward Nels and Hannah 
(Blackfeldt) Holdbeck, his surname coming to 
him according' to the Scandinavian custom. 
His father passed his entire life in Denmark, 
the widowed mother joining her son at Fish 
Haven in 1870 and here passing over the river 
of death in April, .1880. 

Horace P. Nelson was but twelve years of 
age when he had the courage to cross the At- 
lantic and embrace the opportunities for de- 
velopment denied him in the overcrowded 
land of his birth. Coming direct to Utah in 
1852, he engaged as a laborer on a ranch as 
the most suitable place to acquire the language 
of his adopted country, fit himself for useful- 
ness and at the same time add somewhat to 
his financial reinforcement. In i860 he had 
so far progressed that he became closer identi- 
fied with the wild life of the frontier by engag- 



624 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ing in freighting and lumbering operations in 
a broad extent of country extending from Cali- 
fornia to Utah and from Utah to St. Louis, 
Mo. His industry, thrift and energy met with 
well-warranted success, and when he came to 
the Bear Lake country, it was with a solid 
and substantial foundation for a prospective 
fortune. He has ever been diligent, far-see- 
ing, quick to comprehend and grasp an oppor- 
tunity, with a well-developed and vigorous 
phvsique which enabled him to throw the 
whole strength of his strong individuality with 
telling force into any proposition he adopted. 
As a fitting sequel to his endeavors he has now 
a highly improved ranch of 150 acres, eligibly 
located and irrigated, which produces large 
crops of hay, etc., and also a valuable merchan- 
dising business at Fish Haven, where he has a 
large and well-selected stock of goods adapted 
to the wants of the people. 

Mr. Nelson has ever been a producer, 
never an idler, always an active and energetic 
citizen, a leader in all enterprises and a wise 
and keenly practical adviser in both temporal 
and spiritual concerns. He has served most 
creditably for eighteen years as a township 
trustee and is a vital power in local Repub- 
lican politics, serving with acceptability on the 
county central committee of the party. To 
Mr. Nelson must be awarded the distinction 
of being the discoverer of the first gold mine 
developed in Utah, this being a most valuable 
accomplishment as it became the noted Jor- 
dan mine in Bingham Canyon, which is the 
richest mine in Utah, changing its ownership 
recently at a price of over $1,000,000. For 
many years Mr. Nelson gave valiant service 
against the hostiles and participated in all of 
the principal battles and engagements. He is 
prominent in church work, served as bishop of 
his ward for a term of years and is now presi- 
dent of the second quorum of Seventies. In 
him is seen an example of a life well spent. 



and his more than fifty years" residence in the 
West has been replete with all of the varied 
experiences of the anxious pioneer and the 
well-to-do citizen, and the happiness of a se- 
rene old age is settling upon him as a rich 
bounty for his services in the past. 

On September 20. 1874, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Nelson and Miss Jessie L. Stock, 
a daughter of John and Jane (Adams) Stock. 
who are more fully mentioned in connection 
with the sketch of Hyrum S. Rich, elsewhere 
in this volume. She was born in Cape Colony. 
Africa, and emigrated thence, coming to Utah 
with her parents at an early day. Five win- 
some daughters form the family circle, a son, 
Horace E., having died in infancy. Their 
names are Clara J.. Jessie B., Edna L., Ella C. 
and Nora, and all have received fine educa- 
tional advantages, several of them graduating 
from the superior schools of Salt Lake City. 
It is scarcely necessary to state that in this 
home a cultured and expansive hospitality is 
ever in evidence. 

JAMES R. YOUNG. 

A native of "Bonnie Scotland." where his 
birth occurred at Thankerton. Lanarkshire, on 
October 29. 1859, a son of James and Marga- 
ret (Russell) Young, the subject of this bio- 
graphical record, James R. Young, has ever 
exhibited the sterling qualities which by gen- 
eral consent are conceded to the Scottish race. 
intelligence, honest and persevering industry, 
and a frank independence which considers every 
man as equal to every other man. His father, 
a coalminer. died at the age of fifty-one years 
and his body lies in the ancient cemetery at 
Airdrie. In 1877 the widow and her two sons 
became identified with the Mormon church 
and came direct to Utah, locating at Logan, 
where the mother married William Troup, and 
resided in Cache county until 1882. when thev 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



625 



removed to Rexburg, Idaho, in the earliest mi- 
grations to that land of that section, and here 
the husband was employed in the tithing office 
and the mother died in 1897, at the age of 
seventy-eight years. 

James R. Young was the seventh in a 
family of eight children and at the age of ten 
years assumed the responsibility of life for 
himself, going to Glasgow and entering the 
service of the Western Club of that city as a 
page, in due time through his prompt atten- 
tion to his duties rising to be a footman in the 
same establishment, which position he occu- 
pied thereafter until the emigration to Amer- 
ica previously mentioned. His first occupa- 
tion in Utah was that of a laborer, but he soon 
relinquished that to become a brakeman on 
the Utah Northern Railroad between Ogden 
and Lima, and after serving faithfully in that 
capacity for four years he was appointed yard 
master, holding this position for three years, 
when he came to Rexburg, in 189 1, and was 
for two years in the meat business on his own 
account, disposing of it to H. Flamm & Co., 
but remaining with the firm as their collector, 
also having charge of their meat department 
for six years. Thereafter he went on a mis- 
sion for the church to Wisconsin and remained 
two years, returning to Rexburg in April, 
1901. For one year after his return Mr. 
Young was the Rexburg representative of the 
Idaho Falls Implement Co. and on February 
22, 1902, he purchased a stock of furniture, 
glass, paints, oils, school books, stationer}', etc., 
and with his son conducting a prosperous and 
rapidly increasing mercantile business in this 
line at Rexburg, securing a truly representa- 
tive patronage. 

Mr. Young aided in building the pioneer 
irrigating canal of Fremont county, holds 
stock in the Rexburg Canal Company and has 
been a cordial supporter of all things pro- 
jected for the public good or private benevo- 



lences, while in the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints he has filled every position 
in the gradation up to a member of the Sev- 
enties, and he is now holding this office. He 
has been an active and progressive member of 
the Rexburg school board since 189 1, was a 
trustee of the city in 1898 and 1899 and as a 
Republican was elected justice of the peace on 
November 4, 1902, prior to that time holding 
the office by appointment for one year. 

On September 3, 1878, was solemnized the 
marriage rites of Mr. Young and Miss Anna 
E. Taylor, a daughter of John and Ann Tay- 
lor, who emigrated from England to America. 
In 1877 Anna came to Utah and in due time 
married. To this very agreeable marriage 
union have been born seven children. Joseph 
T., Annie E., Margaret, James R., Lillian Z.. 
Ethel and William L. The family stand in 
good repute in a large range of acquaintances 
and Mr. Young, in all relations of life, domes- 
tic, social, official, or ecclesiastic, is considered 
a representative citizen, worthy the friendship 
and esteem which the people so generouslv be- 
stow upon him. 

OLAF S. ANDERSON. 

This enterprising and public-spirited resi- 
dent of Rexburg-, Fremont county, Idaho, is 
truly a son of the West, for his birth occurred 
at Spanish Fork, Utah, on January 16, 1858, 
being the son of sturdy Swedish parents who 
emigrated from Sweden in early life to Utah, 
where at Spanish Fork they were married and 
commenced their housekeeping, Olaf S. An- 
derson being the eldest of their nine children. 
After three years' life at Spanish Fork the 
family removed to the vicinity of Camp Floyd, 
where agricultural and brickmaking operations 
were conducted until 1883, when they came to 
Rexburg. settling in the vicinity of the town 
and being numbered henceforth among the 



626 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



diligent, hardworking and productive citizens 
of the country. The father died when sixty- 
five years old, on December 2, 1888. and the 
mother is still continuing her residence on the 
homestead they took up in the pioneer days 
of 1883. 

Olaf S. Anderson was earl)- taught that 
industry was the cardinal virtue of successful 
existence and from early boyhood he has 
"earned his bread by the sweat of his brow," 
being employed on his father's farm and in 
his brickyard and in various other vocations, 
continuing to he thus occupied until he was 
twenty-nine years old. He then devoted him- 
self to farming for five years, then coming to 
Fremont county, he engaged in freighting be- 
tween Rexburg and Market Lake and this 
he prosperously conducted until the completion 
of the railroad to Rexburg terminated the 
freighting business. From that time to the 
present writing he has been engaged in the 
transfer and draying business in Rexburg. be- 
ing the pioneer of the town in this line. He 
owns seven and one-half acres of land and has 
an attractive house, and as a Democrat he has 
held office as councilman of Rexburg for two 
terms of one year each, while in the Mormon 
church, of which he has been a constant mem- 
ber from early life, he has held the office of 
elder. 

Mr. Anderson was married to Miss Mary 
A. Bell, a daughter of William and Martha 
(Benson) Bell, on November 18, 1885. Her 
father emigrated from Denmark at a very 
early day in the Mormon occupation of Utah, 
crossing the plains with ox teams -and being 
one of the very first settlers of Lehi, where he 
married Miss Martha Benson, a native of one 
of the Eastern states, and worked at the car- 
penter's trade for eighteen years, thereafter in 
1884 becoming one of the pioneer settlers of 
Rexburg, where he continued carpentrv until 
the time of his death, at sixtv-nine vears of 



age. the mother having long preceded him 
to the spirit land, dying at Newton, Utah, 
when only forty-one years old. Mr. and Mrs. 
Anderson have had six children, as follows: 
Irene, horn December 17, 1886; Olaf S., horn 
May 3. 1889; Wilford F.. born April 23. 
1891 ; W. Raymond, born February 1, 1894; 
Clyde B., born January 21. 1896: Juanita. 
born October 6, 1902. 

JOHN J. JOHNSON. 

The lamented death of this hardworking 
and estimable citizen of Fremont county, at 
his home near Burton, Idaho, on August 14. 
1902, was deeply deplored, not only by those 
connected with him by ties of relationship, 
but a host of sincere friends whom he had en- 
deared to him by his maul)- virtues and his 
persona] traits of excellence. His widow and 
children, it is needless to add, are the greatest 
sharers in the grief attendant on so severe a 
bereavement. John J. Johnson, a son of 
James and Christina Johnson, was born in 
Denmark, on May 24, 1841, and in early life 
accompanied his parents on their long migra- 
tion across the great Atlantic Ocean and the 
vast stretches of the American continent to 
Utah, crossing the almost unending plains at 
the slow pace of the oxen drawing the wagons 
of the immigrants. The family home was 
made at Logan, Utah, where a city lot was 
purchased and a tract of land, on which the 
father carried on agricultural operations until 
his death, at the age of seventy-two years, in 
1887, the mother having died at Logan in 
1848, when the subject of this review was only 
seven years old. 

A faithful and dutiful son. Mr. Johnson 
gave diligent service to the demands of the 
paternal homestead until he was twenty-four 
vears old, remaining at Logan for two years 
thereafter, thence coming to the Up]>er Valley 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



627 



of the Snake River for a permanent home. 
Near Rexburg he used his homestead right 
in acquiring 160 acres of land, which under 
his effective endeavors was soon brought into 
a state of improvement and to this tract he 
added by purchase. He gave strict attention 
to his farm and its improvement, gave little 
time or attention to political contests, but ever 
did his full share in public matters of a local 
character, and his home and his generous na- 
ture were ever at the service of the afflicted 
and the suffering. It was, however, in the 
institutions and ordinances of the church that 
he expended his time and energies most freely, 
and his wise councils and fervent piety will 
stand for long years in the organizations with 
which he was connected, and in which he was 
a positive power and vitalizing force, as in- 
tangible but ever present monuments to his 
sainted memory. He was the venerated bishop 
of Burton ward for eleven consecutive and 
highly prosperous years, and in 1902 he was 
ordained as a patriarch. In these ecclesias- 
tical offices he combined the softness and win- 
ning tenderness of a woman with the strength, 
confidence, dignity and authority of one pos- 
sessed of a full consciousness of the high pres- 
tige of the station he held and of its functions. 
Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with 
a most estimable lady, Miss Eva C. Lawson, 
whose parents, Aasmus and Wilhelmina (Wil- 
liamson) Lawson, came from their native Den- 
mark to Logan, Utah, in 1864, in one of the 
ox trains crossing the plains and becoming 
farmers in their new home. The mother died 
at the age of sixty-two years and the father, 
who survived her, died when he was sixty- 
nine years old. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnson are as follows : Nephi ; Eliza died 
November 26, 1868; Willard; Erastus W. ; 
James A. ; Anson P. The family stand high 
in the regard .of their many friends and they 
have the sympathy of all in the loss of the 
kind husband and father. 



JAMES M. COOK. 

Among the earliest pioneers of the Upper 
Snake River Valley of Idaho, in which he 
made his home in 1883, James M. Cook is one 
of the representative men of his section of 
Fremont county, Idaho, where his residence is 
now located in the beautiful inchoate city of 
Rexburg. He was born in Manchester, Eng- 
land, on June 5, 1850, a son of Thomas and 
Mary (Brundrett) Cook, both of whose ances- 
tors for many generations were born, passed 
their lives and were buried in that portion of 
England, and where the parents died also, the 
mother in 1885, at the age of seventy-one 
years, and the father in 1898, aged seventy- 
three years. The sole surviving sister of Mr. 
Cook is now residing in Manchester. 

Diligently occupied with school attendance 
and labor at home until he had more than 
passed the full years of his minority, in 1874 
Mr. Cook engaged in market gardening, which 
he pursued until his emigration, which was 
brought about by his obtaining a knowledge of 
the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ, of 
Latter Day Saints, of which he became a mem- 
ber, and he sought the full enjoyment of the 
privileges of his faith by coming to Utah, 
where he arrived on November 8, 188 1, his 
first settlement being at Logan in Cache Val- 
ley. In 1883 he came to the new settlement 
of Rexburg as a pioneer settler and located on 
a homestead of 160 acres, and from that time 
to the present he has been one of the best 
known, citizens of the town, prominent in local 
enterprises and especially so in his church, and, 
being prospered in his undertakings, he has 
fine town property in Rexburg and he made 
his home at his present location in 1889. A 
Republican in his political affiliations, he has 
cheerfully aided the party in its various cam- 
paigns and movements and has been its candi- 
date for various official places, among them 
that of justice of the peace, holding the posi- 



628 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



tion with an administrative ability that won 
public esteem. He has been a worker in irri- 
gation projects from his first residence in the 
county down to the present writing, being a di- 
rector in a canal company, and also being its 
capable secretary. He has rendered meritori- 
ous and appreciated service in several respon- 
sible ecclesiastical positions, having been the 
clerk and treasurer of his ward since 1883, 
now serving under his fourth appointment, 
also being the present superintendent of the 
Sunday school of the second ward, and the 
president of a quorum of the Seventies. The 
positions he has held in the civil, business and 
religious departments evidence the patent fact 
that in all the region of the Upper Snake 
River Valley there is no man who stands in 
higher regard or enjoys to a greater degree 
the confidence of the people. 

In 1872 Mr. Cook married with Miss Em- 
ily J. Radcliffe, the daughter of Samuel and 
Ellen (Atkinson) Radcliffe, a native of Eng- 
land, whence her parents emigrated to Utah, 
locating at Logan, where the father's death 
occurred in 1854 and that of the mother in 
1889. The children of this marriage union are 
Helen B. ; John died October 10, 1902; Ada 
and Martha, twins; Thomas; Emily; Lillian 
died on November 4, 1902 ; James and Joseph, 
who died in England ; Charles R. ; Mary ; Dan- 
iel ; Sarah ; Christina died in 1896. The fam- 
ily occupies a representative place in Rexburg, 
being honored from its connection with its 
history from the early days and also held in 
high esteem for the estimable qualities of its 
members. 

ARTHUR E. CORDON. 

Numbered among the representative citi- 
zens of Rigby, Fremont county, Idaho, where 
he is at the present writing holding with capa- 
bility and to the decided approbation of the 



public the position of postmaster, Mr. Cordon 
was born on December 21, 1864. his parents, 
Alfred and Emily (Predmore) Cordon, com- 
ing as devout members of the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints to Salt Lake City 
among the early immigrants. There they were 
married, and settled first at Brigham City, 
where the father established a pottery, prob- 
ably the first in Utah, and was in 1862 ordained 
as bishop of Willard City, to which place he 
removed and was in office until his death, at 
the age of fifty-two years, the mother surviv- 
ing him and later marrying James Cowell and 
dying in 1894, at the age of sixty years, leav- 
ing four children. 

Arthur E. Cordon acquired his early edu- 
cational discipline at the home fireside, con- 
tinuing it until he was sixteen years old at 
the excellent schools of Willard City, then 
being employed as a section hand on the Union 
Pacific Railroad, thereafter for three years be- 
ing connected with the construction of bridges 
on the Oregon Short Line Railroad, and in 
1889 locating in Rigby. Here he at once be- 
came interested and identified with the public 
matters of the community in a helpful way. 
and was director of the Burgess Irrigating Ca- 
nal for one year. A stalwart Republican in 
political faith, he had not long been a resident 
of Rigby before he was commissioned post- 
master of the town, and the . incumbency of 
this office he has retained for seven years, his 
capability for the position being universally 
recognized and his courtesy, affable manners 
and the painstaking accuracy winning him 
many friends. The Cordon family has from 
the first been noticed for its unselfish devotion 
to the Church of Latter Day Saints and the 
subject of this review has ever been loyal to 
its teachings and an unassuming and consistent 
member, being one of those who assisted in 
the erection of the church edifice at Rigby and 
holding important offices with a comprehen- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



629 



sive sense of the duties therewith connected. 
He was first ordained as a priest and in 1886 
became an elder, which office he is holding 
with great credit to himself and to the benefit 
of the church and the members at the present 
writing. 

Mr. Cordon was united in marriage at Lo- 
gan, Utah, January 14, 1887, with Miss Mary 
J. Whittaker, a daughter of James and Mary 
(McMinn) Whittaker, a native of Utah, her 
parents early removing to Utah, where the fa- 
ther died at the age of fifty-two years, and the 
mother now resides. To this marriage have 
come eight children, as follows : Alfred J., 
Arthur L., Emily J., Cora E., Myrtle H., Wil- 
lard C. (died at two years of age in 1899), 
Horace A. and Meta M. 

Mr. Cordon is a fine specimen of manhood 
and citizenship, a careful and deep thinker, a 
man who will long be remembered by those 
who know him by reason of his strong integ- 
rity, his brotherly kindness and his unostenta- 
tious worth. He has ever been a kind and 
charitable neighbor, sympathizing with and 
aiding those in need of aid, always doing his 
good works in the spirit of the Master, thus 
proving himself worthy of the respect and es- 
teem he is receiving from the whole commu- 
nity, who honor him for his upright and hon- 
orable life, and in all his kind deeds and mani- 
fold kindnesses he is cordially supported by 
his most excellent wife. 

WILLIAM J. YOUNG. 

It is a far cry to the beautiful island of Jer- 
sey in the English Channel, not far from the 
coast of France, but thither we must travel 
if we would reach the birthplace of the one 
of whom we now write, William J. Young, 
now one of the leading citizens of his section 
of the Upper Snake River Valley of Idaho, 
where he is now residing near Archer, Fre- 



mont county, being a man of practical busi- 
ness ability, commanding success and holding 
with efficiency and capability distinguished of- 
fices in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter 
Day Saints. Mr. Young was born in the 
Island of Jersey on March 15, 1844, a son of 
Josias R. and Elizabeth (Cannabett) Young, 
English natives of Jersey, being the eldest of 
a family of twelve children. Thoroughly 
learning the cabinet trade in his youth, the 
father became a skilled workman, and espous- 
ing the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints, he emigrated with his fam- 
ily in 1855 and, crossing the Atlantic and the 
many weary miles across the continent to 
Provo, Utah, he there wrought at his trade 
for the period of six years, thereafter moving 
to Camp Floyd, where he pursued the trade 
of carpentry until the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1896. The mother is still surviv- 
ing in the fullness of eighty years of a most 
eminently diligent and useful existence. 

After passing the years of his youth and 
early manhood in various employments, ac- 
companying his people to Utah, William J. 
Young, of this review, was twenty-six years 
of age when he engaged in freighting opera- 
tions, which he prosperously conducted until 
1883, when he became a pioneer of the Up- 
per Snake River Valley, coming to Archer and 
locating on a homestead of eighty acres of eli- 
gibly located land, which his well-directed in- 
dustry has completely transformed, bringing 
into being a finely improved and productive 
property where formerly sagebrush and an oc- 
casional cactus or prickly pear were the only 
products of the soil. To accomplish this wa- 
ter had to be obtained, and so we find that 
Mr. Young was conspicuous in every move- 
ment tending toward the bringing of water to 
the primal desert wastes, helping- to construct 
all of the irrigation canals of the region, be- 
coming a stockholder of the Square-Top Irri- 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



gation Canal Co., of the Jeannette, and of 
the Sunny Dell Water Companies, holding a 
place on the directorate of each of the organi- 
zations. Everywhere and at all times he has 
been ready to perform his full share of the 
community duties and for twelve years was 
the faithful carrier of the United States mails 
between Archer and Rexburg and between 
La Belle and Idaho Falls. 

Of vastly more importance than his ener- 
getic efforts in behalf of the material improve- 
ment and advancement of this country has 
been his devotion to the religious interests of 
the people. In this he has most faithfully la- 
bored and his church has called him to posi- 
tions of high trust and importance, ordaining 
and consecrating him at various times to the 
offices of deacon, elder, priest and high priest, 
at his first settlement in Idaho receiving an 
ordination as high priest and presiding over 
his stake in the absence of the bishop. Fur- 
ther than this he has rendered effective serv- 
ice as the president of the Young Men's Mu- 
tual Improvement Association and held with 
marked ability and distinction for twelve years 
the position of stake superintendent of Sun- 
day schools. Truly when the roll of those 
who have done most for the people of Fre- 
mont county is called, few will be found in 
higher location than the worthy subject of 
this review. 

On February 7, 1870, Mr. Young and Miss 
Zilpha R. Archer were united in marriage. 
Her birth occurred on June 5, 1852, at Ben- 
son, England, being the daughter of John B. 
and Elizabeth (Edwards) Archer, her parents 
and family emigrating to New York in 1854 
and settling at Williamsburg, where was their 
home until 1862, when, crossing the plains to 
Salt Lake City, they permanently located at 
Pleasant Grove, Utah, where they still reside, 
the father being eighty years of age and the 
mother seventy-eight. 



The biographical memoir can be brought 
to no more appropriate close than to give the 
names and dates of birth and death of the in- 
teresting family of children who have brought 
a blessing and cheer to their parents, in whose 
hospitable home a truly Western hospitality is 
ever in evidence : Zilpha E., born December 
8, 1870; William J., born September 5, 1872; 
Ernest H., born August 30, 1874, died on Au- 
gust 11, 1879; Clarence P., born December 
25, 1876, died August 16, 1879; Alpha P., 
born December 9, 1878; George B., born Oc- 
tober 2, 1880; E. A., born August 26, 1882; 
Robert^A., born in January, 1885 ; Myrtle G., 
born December 31, 1886; Lillian C, born April 
20, 1889; Clement A., born November 29, 
1890; Rosa L., born May 30, 1893; Mark H., 
born September 20, 1896. 

JOHN H. SAYER. 

This enterprising citizen of Rigbv, where 
he is conducting liven- stable operations of 
scope and importance, is one of the represent- 
ative men of the town and he is a prominent 
factor in the interests of the locality, being a 
courteous, honorable and obliging gentleman 
in his business as well as social relations, tak- 
ing great pains to supply his patrons with all 
they may desire in his line, while in the gen- 
eral work of the development of the surround- 
ing country he has ever done his full share. 
John H. Sayer was born at Weber River, Utah, 
on April 26, 1866, the son of Thomas and 
Elizabeth (Jolly) Saver. Thomas Sayer was 
born on March 9, 1830, at four P. M. at Por- 
rington, England, being the son of William 
and Ann (Perkins) Sayer, both of whom were 
descendants of long-established English fam- 
ilies, whose lineage is lost in the remote past. 
Thomas learned the shoemaker's trade, but his 
services for quite a period were much in de- 
rhand as a brewer for the neighboring farmers. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



631 



Through faithful emissaries of the Mormon 
church he was led to a belief in their doctrines 
about i860 and in 1864 carried his faith into 
action by emigrating from England and tak- 
ing the long Atlantic voyage to America and 
the equally long journey across the continent 
to Utah, crossing the plains with one of the 
slow-moving ox trains then so frequent on 
the trail. After his arrival in Salt Lake he 
went to Weber River, there taking up land on 
which was the family home for nine years, after 
after moving to Hooper, where he lived two 
years, thence making his way to Clarkston, 
which was the family home for nine years, after 
which he came to Rigby, was actively con- 
cerned in the work of early improvement and 
in all the development of the section, and has 
been busily occupied in farming and in shoe- 
making until the present writing. He was 
married in England, in 1850, with Miss Eliza- 
beth Jolly, a daughter of William and Comfort 
(Halibone) Jolly, also of ancient English ex- 
traction, and to this union have been born six 
children, of whom four are now living, 
three sons being numbered among the 
progressive citizens of Rigby, while the 
daughter is now the wife of Joseph Millen- 
berry, a farmer of Cache Valley, Utah. 

John H. Sayer upon attaining a suitable 
age was employed in the construction depart- 
ments of the Oregon Short Line Railroad to 
1885, when he came to the Snake River Val- 
ley, took up land and commenced both farm- 
ing and stockraising, aiding in the introduction 
of all of the irrigating canals in this part of 
the country, becoming a stockholder also in 
all of them, later establishing the pioneer liv- 
ery business of the town of Rigby, which he 
is now conducting. His parents being loyal 
and earnest members of the Church of Jesus 
Christ of Latter Day Saints, he has been con- 
nected with the church from early life. He is 
a popular member of the county, a genial, so- 



cial companion and a strong man, who num- 
bers the best people of the section as his per- 
sonal friends. 

Mr. Sayer was married with Miss Marion 
Atkinson on November 3, 1887, at Clarkston, 
Utah, she being the daughter of Alfred and 
Ann (Botting) Atkinson, natives of London, 
England, where her father followed the trade 
of a baker. After he came to Utah he en- 
gaged in farming until the time of his death, 
which was hastened by a cancer. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sayer have a bright family of six chil- 
dren: John Thomas, born October 14, 1889; 
Clarence Ezra, born July 3, 1891 ; William 
Henr)r, born November 20, 1894; Leith L., 
born January 20, 1896; Norva, born May 29, 
1897, and one other, born November 11, 1902. 

JOHN G. MORGAN. 

Born of English parentage at Mill Creek, 
Utah, on February 10, 1857, the son of John 
and Ann (Gillett) Morgan, the subject of this 
review is now numbered among the repre- 
sentative farmers and stockgrowers of the 
Upper Snake River Valley of Idaho, where he 
is now maintaining his residence at La Belle, 
Fremont county, Idaho, of which district he 
was one of the earliest pioneer settlers, his 
well-watered and well-improved farm showing 
in an excellent way the result of his well-di- 
rected energy, industry and capable adminis- 
tration of affairs during the long term of years 
he has here been resident. His parents emi- 
grated from England in their early married 
life, joining the Mormon colony in Illinois, la- 
ter removing to Missouri, and thereafter, in 
1853, accompanying one of the ox-team bri- 
gades that for a series of years transported 
so many of the disciples of the Church of Je- 
sus Christ of Latter Day Saints to the prom- 
ised land. Making their home for four years 
in Salt Lake City, the father there wrought 



632 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



at his trade as a mason. Continuing his resi- 
dence in that pleasant locality, the permanent 
family home was established at Mill Creek, 
where the father carries on farming, being 
hale and hearty at the age of seventy-four 
years, the mother having attained the age of 
sixty-nine years. In the community this ven- 
erable couple are highly esteemed for their uni- 
form life of industry, probity and excellent re- 
ligious character. 

For seven years after becoming of legal 
age John G. Morgan was engaged in farming 
operations, then he was employed in the sur- 
veys and preliminary work of the construction 
of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, in this 
connection holding the marker at Granger, 
Wyo., for the surveyor to lay out the first 
switch constructed on that road. After one 
season's work was completed he returned to 
Mill Creek, where he was industriously em- 
ployed until 1883, when he became a pioneer, 
wending his way to the well-watered but un- 
developed sagebrush plains of the Upper 
Snake River Valley of Idaho, taking up a 
homestead of 160 acres in the Cedar Butte 
country, now La Belle, where he has given 
practical evidence of his energetic capability 
of grasping the problem of the rapid reclama- 
tion, improvement and development of the 
original arid and unproductive land, bringing 
the fructifying water to call into wholesome 
activity all of the locked-up fertility of the 
soil which had lain dormant and unre- 
sponsive since the foundation of the world. 
That he has been eminently successful is evi- 
dent by the bounteous crops of hay, grain and 
other products that year after year are re- 
warding his industry and thrift. He was iden- 
tified with the construction of irrig-ating ca- 
nals from the first and has been a director in 
them and has also served with acceptability as 
watermaster. He has for many years been 
a consistent member of the Latter Dav Saints, 



his qualifications for prominent offices therein 
causing his ordination to various posts of im- 
portance, being an active teacher in 1883 and 
1884. then ordained the second counsellor to 
the bishop of the Menan ward, in 1887 con- 
secrated as first counsellor to the bishop of 
the Cleveland ward, holding this office until 
1897, when he was set apart as bishop of La 
Belle ward. In all of these relations he has 
manifested a religious character of courtesy, 
kindness and self-abnegation, fully recognizing 
and filling every requirement and duty apper- 
taining to them. 

On December 23, 1880, were married Miss 
Hannah M. Scott and Mr. Morgan, her birth 
occurring on March 2, 1859, the daughter of 
Ji ihn and Sarah Ann (Willis) Scott, who, early 
Mormons, were married under the auspices of 
the church at Nauvoo, the father there work- 
ing at his trade of carpentry and in the sec- 
ond year of the flight to Utah (1848) crossing 
the plains with a Mormon battalion and mak- 
ing the home at Mill Creek, becoming pros- 
perous and valuable citizens in the land until 
their death, the father dying in 1877. at the 
age of sixty-six years, and the mother on Oc- 
tober 30. 1891, her funeral services and burial 
transpiring at Salt Lake City. In the family 
circle of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have been born 
and educated numerous children, who have 
brought life and cheer to their parents and 
whose names and births we here record : Edith 
Ann, born December 23, 1881 ; Lucetta, born 
August 24. 1884; John Roland, born February 
2, 1887; Grace, born November 5. 1889; 
Myra F., born July 7, 1892; Eldon Clyde, born 
November 24. 1894; Ava Lisle, lxirn June 21, 
died December 17, 1897; Ora Laverne. born 
February 26. 1899; Leo Milton, born March 
5, 1902. 

In all the affairs of business, social and 
church relations with which Mr. Morgan has 
been so closely associated, he has been ably 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



633 



assisted, aided and encouraged by the active 
sympathy and cooperation of Mrs. Morgan, 
whose strong mental equipments, genial and 
winning personality and deep religious devo- 
tion have been of great influence and useful- 
ness in the circle where both number all of 
their acquaintances as loyal friends, and she 
has been the popular president of the Young 
Ladies' Association for two years, and for 
thirteen years the efficient and valued president 
of the Relief Society. 

SPENCER V. RAYMOND. 

An event occurred at Lake Fork, Wyo., on 
July 13, 1852, as William W. and Almira 
(Cutler) Raymond were crossing the plains 
with a Mormon ox-team caravan to enjoy reli- 
gious liberty in the new land of Zion, which 
was of immense consequence to the subject of 
this writing, Spencer V. Raymond, of near 
Menan postoffice, Fremont county, Idaho, for 
it was nothing less than his birth. His parents 
were farmers from western New York and 
after their arrival in Utah, shortly after the 
birth of their son Spencer, they located for one 
year on the Jordan River, thence removing to 
Plain City, where they were engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits for many years, being most 
estimable citizens and standing high in com- 
munity circles. The father died, at fifty-seven 
years of age, on August 9, 1882, and the 
mother, who long survived her husband, on 
March 15, 1902. 

Spencer V. Raymond, at the age of twen- 
ty-one years, after having given diligent and 
productive labors in the interests of his par- 
ents, became an individual farmer and stock- 
raiser near Plain City, Utah, for three years, 
then, hearing much about the opportunities 
for the industrious lying unclaimed in the Up- 
per Snake River Valley of Idaho, he deter- 
mined to avail himself of some of them, and 



removed thither, reaching Menan, Fremont 
county, on March 29, 1879, immediately there- 
after taking up a homestead of 160 acres of 
government land one mile west of Menan, to 
which he gave time and attention in bringing 
to it the necessary irrigating facilities, in de- 
veloping its resources and in its improvements, 
conducting general farming and stockraising 
at the same time and making this place his 
home for twelve years. Then selling it, he 
purchased eighty acres above Menan and 160 
acres four and one-half miles northwest of the 
town. In May, 1902, Mr. Raymond, in asso- 
ciation with his son Van Ness, purchased a 
quarter-section of adjacent land and in De- 
cember, 1902, Mr. Raymond exchanged the 
eighty acres east of Menan and the property 
he owned in the town of Menan for 200 acres 
lying two miles west of Menan, and here he 
is now conducting a prosperous and cumulative 
business in stockraising and in the diversified 
farming of this section, being prospered in 
his energetic and systematic endeavors and 
having the good will and esteem of, thg com- 
munity as an estimable citizen of cordial man- 
ners and trufy western hospitality. A Repub- 
lican in politics, he has labored earnestly for 
the success of the principles espoused by that 
organization and also in the advancement of 
community and educational interests, holding 
with acknowledged ability the office of school 
trustee for twelve most useful years. He was 
a factor in building the first irrigation canal 
that took its water from Snake River, the 
Long Island Irrigation Canal, constructed in 
1880, and is still a stockholder of the com- 
pany. 

Born as one might say a member of the 
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
Mr. Raymond has ever been a devoted and in- 
fluential believer in its doctrines and a man of 
usefulness in various fields of its activities, be- 
in? ordained a teacher in 188 1 and becoming 



634 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the president of the teachers and counsellor 
to the presiding elder of this section of the 
state. From 1883 he had charge of the teach- 
ers' quorum for a period of nearly five years, 
then holding the office of second counsellor 
to the bishop for fifteen years, while 
in 1883 he was ordained to his present 
office of high priest, in which exalted station 
his usefulness has been of determinate value. 
The marriage of Mr. Raymond with Miss 
Mary A. Ellsworth was solemnized at Salt 
Lake City on December 21, 1873, and of their 
thirteen children all have died in infancy ex- 
cept a son, Van Ness, born December 13, 1876, 
who is also a resident of Menan and associated 
in some of his business operations with his 
father. 

CHARLES A. SMITH. 

Born in the "land of steady habits" and in 
early youth coming to the Great West, Mr. 
Charles A. Smith, now a prosperous citizen 
and merchant of Menan, Fremont county, 
Idaho, has witnessed the various phases of 
eastern and western life and by his well-di- 
rected endeavors has aided in a high degree 
to the building up of the business interests of 
each of the sections of country where he has 
maintained his residence, being ever a pro- 
ducer and never a drone in the body politic. 
He was born on December 2, 1846, at New 
Canaan. Fairfield county, Conn., the son of 
Noah and Mary (De Forest) Smith, natives 
of the state of New York, his father being a 
skilled boot and shoemaker. From Connecti- 
cut in 1862 the family emigration occurred to 
Utah, as they were ardent believers in the doc- 
trines and spiritual philosophy of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, crossing 
the plains with the inevitable ox train of that 
period, and making their home at Salt Lake 
City, where the father industriously worked at 
his trade until his death, at sixty years of age, 



on June 16, 1863; the mother attained the age 
of seventy-two years, dying at Camas, Utah, 
in 1887. 

It speaks well for the bravery and undaunt- 
ed resolution of the subject of this writing, that 
at the early age of twelve years he took upon 
himself the responsibility of his own support, 
for three years thereafter being employed on 
a Connecticut farm. Later, coming to Utah 
with his parents, he there continued to be con- 
nected with agricultural life and employments, 
not only in general farming but also for one 
year in a nursery. Thereafter he saw that 
there was profit in well-conducted freighting 
operations, and preparing himself therefor, he 
followed this occupation for sixteen years, hav- 
ing his headquarters at Salt Lake City. Dur- 
ing his residence in Utah he was engaged in 
ranching and stockraising operations in Mor- 
gan county for six years. It was in 1890 
that he changed his residence and business to 
Fremont county, Idaho, in the fall of that 
year coming to Menan and establishing the 
pioneer store of the town, where he is still 
conducting a prosperous and rapidly increas- 
ing trade, by his courteous manner of doing 
business and his winning personality acquiring 
many friends. A Republican in political faith, 
he has been an active worker in the party and 
his eligibility to capably hold important trusts 
was recognized by his party associates in 1898, 
when he was placed in candidacy for the office 
of county commissioner, but at the election he 
was defeated owing to the peculiar exigencies 
of the political situation. 

Mr. Smith married with Miss Sarah J. 
Shurtliff on December 25, 1874, at Salt Lake 
City, where she was bom on November 23, 
1851, a daughter of Vincent and Elizabeth 
(Topham) Shurtliff, natives respectively of 
Massachusetts and England, who, coming to 
Utah, there met and married, both now hav- 
ing passed on to the better land. Five inter- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



635 



esting children have been born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Smith, of whom three survive. The 
names, etc., of all are as follows : Mary died 
in her fourth year, in 1872 ; Charles A., born 
December 15, 1877; Harry, born September 
11, 1883, died in infancy; Nellie, born August 
7, 1884; Frank, born November 11, 1886. 
In all the relations of life Mr. Smith and fam- 
ily stand in a high position, having the friend- 
ship and esteem of the best citizenship and be- 
ing valued for their many estimable qualities. 

ALFRED A. BRAMWELL. 

When in future years our records of today 
will be the history of a past era, the descend- 
ants of the early pioneers will hold in deep 
reverence the memory of those who so bravely, 
patiently and heroically endured the manifold 
dangers of the strenuous life of the early days 
and read the simple annals of their lives with 
an interest that nothing else in literature can 
equal. Among those names which are here 
recorded the parents of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred 
Bramwell, who are now prominent residents 
of Grant, Fremont county, Idaho, will stand 
in equal honor with any of the pioneer band 
of heroes. Mr. Bramwell was born on No- 
vember 5, 1855, at Salt Lake City, Utah, a son 
of George W. and Mary A. (Stevenson) Bram- 
well, natives of England, who, in the same 
year with the birth of their son Alfred, crossed 
the Atlantic and the long hazardous journey 
across the plains sustained by the fervor of 
their religious belief, experienced the hard- 
ships and privations incident to the slow 
movement of the ox trains. In Utah they lo- 
cated for two years in Box Elder county, 
where the father engaged in pedagogic work 
at Brigham City, receiving high encomiums 
on the method of his teaching, thereafter re- 
turning east to Iowa, the father hence return- 
ing; to his native land in the endeavor to re- 



cuperate his greatly impaired health. He re- 
mained there from eight to ten years, then re- 
turning to Ogden, Utah, and purchasing a 
farm at Far West, engaged in its cultivation 
for four years, after which he made his per- 
manent home at Plain City, where the mother 
still resides at the venerable age of seventy- 
five years, the father's death transpiring while 
he was on a visit to Rexburg, Idaho, in Feb- 
ruary, 1899, and his mortal remains await the 
resurrection in the Rexburg cemetery. 

After a useful minority passed in the as- 
sistance of his parents, at the age of twenty- 
one years Mr. Bramwell became a farmer at 
Plain City, Utah, continuing to be prosper- 
ously thus engaged until his removal to Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, in 1889, where he availed 
himself of his right of homestead, locating on 
160 acres at Grant and also taking a timber 
claim of 160 acres more, and from the wild 
conditions of its original state his industry and 
judgment in improvement have developed a 
fine property, returning to its fortunate owner 
a satisfactory return annually for the labors 
expended thereon, the branches of husbandry 
here conducted being the diversified farming 
usual to the valley and the raising of superior 
breeds of cattle and swine. In 1901 he pur- 
chased the mercantile business of F. C. Han- 
sen at Grant and is now successfully conduct- 
ing trade, having a fine stock of general mer- 
chandise adapted to the wants of the surround- 
ing people. 

Mr. Bramwell has been an interested per- 
son in all things appertaining to good citizen- 
ship and the public welfare, as a Democrat 
serving as a delegate in county and other con- 
ventions and he has only varied from his rule 
of abstinence from political or public office- 
seeking and holding to accept the office of 
school trustee in the Columbian district, where 
it was made vacant by the death of James 
Mclntyre. His connection with the work of 



6 3 6 



PROGRESSIJ'E MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



irrigation has been long and useful. He as- 
sisted in the construction of the Harrison Irri- 
gating Canal, served one term as director of 
the company, was the watermaster of the 
West Branch Canal for two years, was also a 
director in that company and for one year its 
president. In the Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter Day Saints Mr. Bramwell has an as- 
sured and an honorable standing. In 1879 
he was ordained an elder, in 1881 a member of 
the Seventies and he is now one of the presi- 
dents of the one hundred and thirtieth quorum 
of Seventies. Incidentally we will state in this 
connection that Mr. Bramwell has six brothers, 
and all, except one who is invalidated by be- 
ing a cripple, have rendered acceptable service 
to the church in foreign mission fields. 

The marriag'e of Mr. Bramwell with Miss 
Margery Shomaker, which was solemnized at 
Salt Lake City on November 15, 1879, was 
one of those felicitous unions which bring a 
lasting pleasure. She is a lady of mental en- 
dowments of a high order, dominated by a 
religious trust and zeal which not only adds 
to her worth in family and social relations, but 
is of unusual value in the work of the church, 
in which she is especially active, being a popu- 
lar teacher in Sunday school, the very accept- 
able president of the Young Ladies' Mutual 
Improvement Association, the efficient presi- 
dent for five years of the Primarv Association 
and holding at this writing the presidency of 
the Relief Society. Mrs. Bramwell was born 
on April 4. 1861, at South Cottonwood, now 
Union, Utah, a daughter of Alexander M. 
and Marguerite (Taylor) Shomaker. who, born 
in the eastern part of the United States, were 
among the earliest to attempt to cross the 
plains to found a new nation of righteousness 
and faith in the barren Salt Lake country, 
coming in the very first year of the Mormon 
hegira, 1847. On the way they suffered untold 
hardships through scarcity of food and the 



continual fear of attacks from the hostile In- 
dians who hovered around the train the greater 
part of the journey, seeking an unguarded mo- 
ment in which to attack, the mother adopting 
in the kindness of her heart a little girl whose 
father was killed by the Indians. This fam- 
ily, however, reached their destination in 
safety, at Salt Lake City, where Mr. Bram- 
well's oldest sister was the fourth white child 
born in that city, removing to South Cotton- 
wood to become pioneer fanners, and after 
lives of religious devotion and beneficent ac- 
tivity there and at Plain City, whither they 
went in 1863, the father died in 1873, at the 
age of sixty-six years, the mother still living 
at Plain City at the venerable age of eighty- 
five years, loved, honored and revered as one 
of the best types of that pioneer existence so 
nearly passed away. 

The family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Bram- 
well has been brightened and rounded out by a 
bright bevy of children, whose names and 
births we here record : Alfred Augustus, born 
August 7, 1879; Mark, born December 10, 
1881; Myrtle, born May 26, 1883; Margaret, 
born May 14, 1886; Leonard, born June 5. 
1888 ; Franklin, born April 22, 1893 ; Daisy 
M., also born April 10, 1893, died when six 
weeks old: Goldie W., born July 25. 1899. 

BEN E. RICH. 

The potential forces of birth and environ- 
ment in their most helpful form as character 
builders are markedly shown in the mental su- 
periority of the subject of this review, his fa- 
ther, the distinguished Charles C. Rich, being 
richly endowed with mental capabilities that 
would have secured eminence in any of the 
highest walks of life in the American conti- 
nent and with a large practical ability which 
constituted him a leader in affairs as potent as 
any ever recorded on the pages of either an- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



637 



cient or modern history; but for the details of 
his life and most eventful career the reader 
can consult the separate review of his life ap- 
pearing elsewhere in this volume. 

Ben E. Rich was born on November 7, 
1855, a son of Charles C. and Sarah Rich, and 
after receiving the best attainable advantages 
-for an education that could be provided under 
the migratory life of his parents, at the age of 
twenty-one years he engaged in the dryg-oods 
and grocery business at Ogden, Utah, and there 
resided from 1876 until 1892, during which 
time, however, he was called unto various 
missionary labors in the interest of the Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the 
present writing he is in charge of the mission 
in the southern states of the Union, holding 
office also as one of the Seventies. In many 
and various ways he has been instrumental in 
the building up of the church and the material 
interests of the various localities where he has 
maintained his residence. As a Republican 
he exercises a profound and far-reaching influ- 
ence in local, state and national councils, re- 
ceiving honorary trusts' and positions as an 
evidence thereof. In 1892 he made his home 
in Rexburg, Idaho, and purchased the Rex- 
burg Press, a weekly Republican newspaper, 
which he conducted with acknowledged ability 
at Rexburg for several years, thereafter mov- 
ing the plant to St. Anthony, tire county-seat 
of Fremont county, where he is still accom- 
plishing editorial labors of great usefulness to 
the party and the national administration, be- 
ing also for a term of years a member of the 
Republican state executive committee and a 
delegate to the Republican national convention 
of 1896. 

In 1877 Mr. Rich married with Miss Diana 
Farr, a daughter of Matthew and Nancy 
(Chase) Fair, natives of Vermont who early 
enlisted in the ranks of the Latter Day Saints, 
exemplifying their faith by forsaking their 



old home ties and taking up the long journey 
of hardship, privations and sustained endur- 
ance across the plains to the land of Zion in 
an early day. They located in 185 1 in the 
new town of Ogden, where the father attained 
prominence in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, be- 
coming mayor of the city and a large contrac- 
tor in railroad construction, and also presi- 
dent of the Ogden stake of Zion. To this em- 
inently felicitous marriage union have come 
eight children, Ben L., now a student of the 
law department of Columbia University of 
New York City; Loren F., Fred, Homer, Ida, 
Don, Andrew and Frank C. Among the cul- 
tured people of Idaho and Utah the family 
holds distinctive importance and an air of 
gracious hospitality ever pervades the attrac- 
tive home, which is a charming place of re- 
sort for their hosts of friends. 

ANDREW J. BIRD. 

A native of Springville, Utah, where he 
was born on February 15, 1856, the son of 
William and Ann (Roylance) Bird, and a resi- 
dent of Idaho since 1863, Mr. Bird can well 
consider himself as an early pioneer of the 
state and in his life since that time have been 
intertwined both the hardships and privations 
and the peculiar pleasures incident to early life 
in a new, as yet unpeopled county. His father 
was a native of the old Colonial town of South- 
port on Long Island, N. Y., while the mother's 
natal place was in England, both coming to 
Utah in the early days of the Saints' immigra- 
tion, where they met and, on September 28, 
1 85 1, were wedded at Springville, Utah. There 
they purchased land and continued their home 
for some years, in i860 removing- to Cache 
Valley, where they conducted agricultural op- 
erations for four years, thereafter going to 
Bear Lake Valley of Idaho, where they were 
numbered among the earliest settlers of Mont- 



6 3 8 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



pelier, later making their home at the county- 
seat town of Paris, where the mother died on 
August 18, 1888, and the father on April 16, 
1892, both well advanced in years and honored 
as early pioneers of Utah and for their con- 
sistent religious lives. 

Andrew J. Bird was a lad of seven years 
of age when his parents moved from the new 
settlement in the Cache Valley to the still 
newer and wilder lands of the Bear Lake Val- 
ley, and he early knew how to meet and sur- 
mount the various difficulties connected with 
pioneer existence. At the excellent schools of 
Paris he obtained all the educational discipline 
it was his lot to acquire, there laying a substan- 
tial foundation for that valuable practical 
learning that has come to him from keen ob- 
servation and cherished experiences in the va- 
rious forms of business and social relations 
through which he has passed. In 1879 he 
went to St. Charles, Idaho, where for a period 
of four years he was engaged in farming. 
Hence, in August, 1885, going to Montpelier 
and taking up a pre-emption claim of 160 
acres, he diligently applied himself to the prim- 
itive agriculture of that day and also to stock- 
raising operations of cumulative magnitude, 
being successful to a degree, remaining there 
in continuous industry until July, 1898, when 
the manifold advantages of the Upper Vallev 
of the Snake River drew him to Rexburg, 
where he has since been an active and useful 
citizen, purchasing a town lot in the city and a 
forty-acre tract of valuable land. He has, with 
his usual thrift and industrious endeavors, ac- 
complished highly satisfactory results in di- 
versified farming operations, giving especial at- 
tention to the raising of hogs, and for a long 
time he has held the office of a director in 
the Teton Island Irrigating Canal Co., while 
he has recently taken up bee culture with a 
marked degree of success, commencing in the 
spring of 1902 with fifteen hives, which within 



one year had increased to fifty-five strong 
hives. 

Mr. Bird has "from birth" been a member 
of the Mormon church, faithfully and consci- 
entiously fulfilling every call of duty in its 
interests, being made a teacher in 1885 and 
still holding the office, and, becoming one of 
the Seventies on July 11, 1886, he is now dis- 
charging the important functions of that po- 
sition. In February, 1889, he was sent as a 
missionary to North Carolina and Tennessee, 
his faithful labors for one year resulting in 
the gain of many converts to the faith, but he 
was then released from further labors in this 
field by reason of failing health, returning to 
Idaho in February, 1890. 

On September 29, 1881, Mr. Bird and Miss 
Cynthia Osborn were united in the bonds of 
holy matrimony. She was born at Hyrum, 
Utah, on January 6, 1861, a daughter of Da- 
vid and Nancy (Thorn) Osborn, now promi- 
nent residents of Rexburg, and for informa- 
tion concerning them and ancestral history of 
the family the reader ma}- refer to the sketch 
of David Osborn appearing on other pages of 
this compilation. The children of this for- 
tunate union are Leo A., born December 13, 
1883; Len O., born October 29. 1885: Belva 
M., born January 25, 1888: Hortense, born 
November 17, 1890; David O.. born August 
27, 1892: Roylance O., born April 10, 1896; 
Thorn O., born December 24, 1897. 

JOSEPH HAYWOOD. 

The origin of the name Haywood goes 
away back into the earliest history of England, 
it being the same as the old Saxon name Here- 
ward and the more modern names of Harvard 
and Howard, also frequently spelled Heywood. 
Few names in English history have been more 
conspicuous and it has numerous representa- 
tives in England at the present day, and there, 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



639 



in Lestershire, on December 16, 1842, Joseph 
Haywood, of this memoir, was ushered into 
being, his parents being Samuel and Eliza- 
beth (Copestake) Haywood, also natives of 
Lestershire. By the death of the father when 
Joseph was but nine years of age the lad was 
compelled through the exigent circumstances 
of the family to engage in labor in the mines, 
at which he was continouusly employed until 
1884, when he and his wife emigrated, mak- 
ing their ultimate destination the Upper Val- 
ley of the Snake River of Idaho, where in due 
time they safely arrived. Mr. Haywood took 
up a homestead, on which he built a pioneer 
cabin in which he resided, engaged in the 
cleaning and reclamation of his land for sev- 
eral years before there was another house in 
his neighborhood. An energetic worker and 
a forceful factor in any enterprise with which 
he is connected, Mr. Haywood was right in 
the heart of the construction work of the 
Great Feeder and the Rigby Irrigation Canals, 
being one of the largest owners of the stock 
and for one year on the directorate of the com- 
pany. His ranch, where he is now engaged 
in combined farming and stockraising- indus- 
tries, is situated one-half mile north and one 
mile east of Rigb)', which is his postoffice ad- 
dress. 

In religious sympathies Mr. Haywood is 
affiliated with the Mormon church and in poli- 
tics with the Republican party. 

At Woodville, Lestershire, England, on 
November 8, 1869, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Haywood and Miss Martha La- 
ken, a daughter of Arthur and Mary (Laize) 
Laken, also a native of Lestershire, where her 
parents were also born, her father conducting 
the manufacturing of bricks in her native par- 
ish until his death in 1893, the mother having 
passed from earth when her daughter Martha 
was but eleven years old. As a fitting close 
to this memoir we sfive a brief record of the 



children of Mr. and Mrs. Haywood: Mary 
Elizabeth died in England when two months 
old; Samuel died when ten years of age; Sa- 
rah A., born February 4, 1875 ; two unnamed 
children who died in early infancy; John W., 
born October 5, 1880; George C, born De- 
cember 24, 1883 ; Clara A., born May 26, 1888, 
was one of the first children born at Rigby; 
Arthur, born November 29, 1892, died when 
four months old. 

JOHN H. GOUGH. 

A life of steady and persistent industry and 
integrity serves to build not only material pros- 
perity and affluence, but also a character for 
welldoing that is of vastly greater impor- 
tance than the temporary wealth of dollars and 
cents. This good result has been attained by 
the gentleman of whom we are now writing, 
John H. Gough, who by his own ability, prac- 
tical common-sense and financial skill has ac- 
quired an attractive estate and is conducting 
prosperous agricultural endeavors near La 
Belle, Fremont county, Idaho, of which place 
he has been a resident since 1885, and a hearty 
cooperator in all public matters of a local 
character, being now a well-to-do citizen, 
known and respected by a large number of 
personal friends. Mr. Gough was born in 
Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 27, 1861, 
his parents being Joseph and Sarah (Walker) 
Gough, natives of England. The father there 
acquired a thorough knowledge of the ma- 
son's trade, at which he wrought for many 
years in Salt Lake City after crossing the 
plains in one of the ox trains of the early day. 
The mother dying when her son John was but 
three years old, deprived his early life of much 
of comfort and joy, and he was early thrown 
upon his own resources, but the prospective 
life of labor was bravely met and as soon as 
he possessed sufficient age he engaged in log- 



640 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ging in the white pines, later continuing this 
employment in the Cache Valley. 

In 1885 the advantages of soil, climate and 
of irrigating possibilities in the Upper Valley 
of the Snake River had come to his attention, 
and deciding to there make his future home 
he came to La Belle, and, after becoming fa- 
miliar with the locality, in 1886 he used his 
right of homestead on government land lying 
one and one-half miles east of the townsite 
and at once took steps for its early improve- 
ment by aiding in the construction of the first 
irrigating canal built in this vicinity, the La 
Belle Canal, from the first being a director in 
the company and the watermaster for some 
years. In connection with this the work of 
clearing off the sagebrush, plowing, fencing, 
etc., was progressed, each year adding to the 
cultured appearance and to the value of the 
property. The location was quite isolated, 
Idaho Falls (Eagle Rock) being the nearest 
trading point. What a change has occurred 
in a few short years ! Waving fields of grain, 
alfalfa, etc., now greet the eye in summer 
where on Mr. Gough's first settlement was but 
an expanded plain of sagebrush growth; 
houses, barns, fences, irrigating canals and 
flocks and herds of stock now dot the land- 
scape, and Mr. Gough has been one of the 
leaders in producing this great transformation. 
Not only as a loyal and law-abiding citizen 
is he known, but also as a faithful elder in 
the Church of Latter Day Saints, which office 
he has efficiently held for sixteen years. 

Mr. Gough married with Miss Sarah Cor- 
bett, on January n, 1883, her parents, James 
and Caroline (Lloyd) Corbett, coming from 
England in 185 1, locating at Pittsburg. Pa., 
until they came to Utah in 1862, settling on 
Mill Creek, and engaging in the developing 
agriculture of that period ; the father had been 
a roller in one of the large iron mills of Eng- 
land. After many years of useful activity in 



their American home the mother died at La 
Belle in 1894, while visiting her daughter, and 
the father crossed the Great Divide at Salt 
Lake City. The family of Air. and Mrs. 
Gough comprises these children: Caroline S., 
born November 4, 1885 ; Melinda I., born Sep- 
tember 25, 1887; Mabel, born July 30, 1890, 
died in infancy ; John, born April 9, 1892 ; 
Nellie F., born March 26, 1893 ; James E., 
born January 26, 1896; Joseph, born March 
22, 1897, died in infancy; Clarence L., born 
December 7. 1899. 

JOHN B. DILTS. 

In the life of the representative citizen of 
Fremont county. Idaho, whose name stands 
at the head of this article has been mingled 
adventure and useful activities in fully equal 
measure, and his career exemplifies the fer- 
tile resources, the readiness of purpose and the 
rapidity of accomplishment which are needed 
to round out the character of a thorough fron- 
tiersman. Mr. Dilts was bom on February 
25, 1862, at Eldora, Iowa, a son of George 
W. and Lucinda (Adams) Dilts, natives of 
New York and Pennsylvania, who married at 
Cincinnati. Ohio, the father being a captain of 
vessels on the Great Lakes. In 1858 they re- 
moved to Iowa, where for twenty-five years 
the father was a practical agriculturist, at the 
end of that time removing to Owando, Deer 
Lodge county, Mont., where he took up gov- 
ernment land and resided until his death in 
189 1, the mother surviving him until 1897. 

John B. Dilts was fifteen years of age 
when he accompanied his parents to Mon- 
tana, where for a time he was connected with 
staging operations and also cared for stock. 
but, inheriting his father's love for naviga- 
tion, he soon engaged in rafting and floating 
timber to Great Falls on the Missouri River, 
continuing to be thus employed there and on 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



641 



the Big Blackfoot River until he was twenty- 
one years of age, when he came to the Snake 
River country and settled at La Belle as a pio- 
neer farmer, his farming life being interspersed 
with navigation on the Snake River. The fam- 
ily lived for two months on the water and he 
was engaged in floating timber and logs down 
to the Rigby and Menan settlements. In 1896, 
during the Indian scare in the Jackson Hole 
country, Mr. Dilts constructed a fort for the 
protection of the settlers of Swan Valley, but 
as no Indians came, no use was made of it. 
In the winter of 1897, when the snow was five 
feet deep, a family was snowbound thirty-five 
miles above Elk Valley and to relieve their sit- 
uation Mr. Dilts went there on snow shoes, 
built a raft and brought the family in safety 
down Snake River. In 1884 the first raft was 
run down the Upper Snake River, bringing 
the logs from which were built the schoolhouse 
at La Belle. 

Mr. Dilts has lived on his present location 
for twenty years and has developed a fine 
home with valuable improvements. A mem- 
ber of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Mr. 
-Dilts has ever been a consistent member and 
an earnest laborer in its cause and interests. 
He was ordained as elder over twenty years 
ago, then in succession priest, high priest, 
counsellor to the bishop and he is now engaged 
in mission work. He donated to the La Belle 
ward the logs from which was built the first 
church of the town, and has been liberal in 
his assistance during all the years of the exist- 
ence of the ward. 

Mr. Dilts was married at Salt Lake City, 
on November 8, 1882, with Miss Ann Borrent, 
a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Powell) 
Borrent, natives of England, who made their 
home in Ogden, Utah, in 1875. The father 
has passed from earth, while the mother is still 
living. Seven children have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Dilts, Mary, born September 5, 1884; 



Jessie E. died in 1893, at seven years of age; 
Rachel, born January 16, 1888; Elsie, born 
June 24, 1892 ; George W., born January 26, 
1895; Maude, born March 23, 1898; John, 
born August 12, 1900. 

RICHARD F. JARDINE. 

When the distinguished Henry Ward 
Beecher voiced this sentiment : "You can not 
succeed in life by spasmodic jerks ; you can 
not win confidence, nor earn friendship, nor 
gain influence, nor attain skill, nor reach posi- 
tion by violent snatches," he spoke an immor- 
tal truth which has been exemplified in thou- 
sands of well-defined instances, and not among 
the least of these has been the career of Bishop 
R. F. Jardine, for not by a single leap nor by 
a single stroke of his masterly powers of sa- 
gacity and mental ability has he attained the 
prominent position he at present occupies in 
both the civil and ecclesiastical relations of 
life; the standing has been secured by a long 
life of useful activity, wherein has been mani- 
fested sterling qualities of head and heart, guid- 
ing him rightly in all positions of trust which 
have been entrusted to him, and to a far- 
seeing and progressive nature which has ever 
been dominated by an unfaltering confidence 
in the guiding power of an overruling Provi- 
dence. It is instructive as well as entertaining 
to chronicle such lives as his for an incentive 
and stimulus to others in the many gener- 
ations which will follow this one in the on- 
ward march of the coming centuries. 

Richard Franklin Jardine was born in Lan- 
arkshire, Scotland, on December 30, 1848, the 
son of James and Isabella (White) Jardine, 
the father being a coalminer, who with his 
family emigrated from Scotland on April 22, 
1855, coming to Pennsylvania, where he was 
employed for two years in the coal mines of 
Schuylkill county, thence removing to Perry 



642 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



county. 111., where for three years he was en- 
gaged in the same occupation as heretofore, 
in 1859 pursuing his further westward way to 
Utah, crossing the plains in charge of Edwin 
Stevenson. Thereafter, in October, 1859, he 
removed to Wellsville, in the Cache Valley, 
where until June, 1866, he was a farmer, then 
removing to Weber, he attained a local promi- 
nence in connection with his church, holding 
with distinct ability all its successive offices 
up to patriarch, in which he was serving at his 
death on August 7, 189 1. The mother of 
Bishop Jardine still resides at Weber ; born 
on May 15, 1820, she has attained more than 
eighty-three years of life. 

R. F. Jardine commenced the active du- 
ties of life by laboring in the coal mines of 
Perry county. 111., continuing thus employed 
until 1859, when he accompanied his parents 
to Utah and aided in the cultivation of their 
land, in 1869 varying these labors by engag- 
ing in railroad construction work on the Union 
Pacific Railroad for the season, aftenvards re- 
turning to the farm. He was extremely fortu- 
nate in forming a highly felicitous marriage 
union on June 3, 1870, with Miss Luna C. 
Ellsworth, a daughter of Edmund and Eliza- 
beth (Young) Ellsworth, her mother being the 
eldest daughter of Brigham Young, the dis- 
tinguished president of the Mormon church, 
and of her ancestry full particulars are given 
in the sketches of her honored parents appear- 
ing on other pages of this volume. The young 
couple made their home at West Weber until 
August 16, 1882, when they transferred their 
residence to Lewisville in the Snake River 
Valley, becoming the first family of settlers 
in the Lewisville district and, locating on the 
first homestead taken up in the immediate vi- 
cinity, they have here maintained their home, 
Bishop Jardine now holding the first deeds 
executed by the United States government to 
citizens of the place, and in coming hither and 



for several years after their arrival the Snake 
River had to be forded, for not a bridge had 
been made. In spite of the efforts of Mr. Jar- 
dine and others to bring water to their land 
by constructing the Lewisville Canal, it was 
two years before the water could be supplied, 
that canal proving a failure after all of their 
earnest work, and they then constructed the 
Parks and Lewisville Canal, getting the water 
from the Great Feeder, and on this the sub- 
ject of this review did much work for which 
he received no pay, and from that time until 
the present writing he has been identified with 
the various movements and enterprises in 
which the people have been engaged for the 
betterment of their condition. In 1892 he was 
appointed a county commissioner and holding 
numerous positions of public and private trust 
and confidence. He has given more of his time 
and attention to the duties involving on him 
through his connection with the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints than tem- 
poral office, and his record in this respect is 
both important and interesting. He was bap- 
tized on January 8, 1856, at Schuylkill, Pa., 
by Angus M. Cameron, confirmed by Joshua 
Jardine on the same day, was first consecrated 
elder, then, on September 11, 1859, one of 
the Seventies of the seventy-fifth quorum, 
while on August 17, 1884, when the Lewis- 
ville ward was erected, he was ordained and 
set apart as the bishop of the ward by Apostle 
George O. Cannon, which office he still holds. 
We can perhaps no better express the public 
appreciation of his services in this connection 
than to use the words of another: "As a 
bishop of his ward he is loved and respected 
by the people for the interest he manifests in 
their welfare. In sickness he is always first 
to lend a helping hand, and he is always ready 
to encourage the people to energy and well do- 
ing. His cheerful and faithful labors and sym- 
pathy in joy and sorrow have rendered his 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



643 



presence always a welcome one in any society 
or home of the section and there are few in- 
deed whose absence would be more keenly felt 
in or out of the church." This summary of an 
important life will be fittingly closed by a 
brief record of the children of Bishop and 
Mrs. Jardine: Luna W., born January 13, 
1871 ; Richard F., born November 3, 1872; 
James L., born July 17, 1875; Rowena W., 
born July 10, 1877; Edmund L., born October 
16,- 1879 ; Elizabeth Y., born January 19, 1882 ; 
John W. (the first child born at Lewisville), 
born March 8, 1884; Minnie B., born April 

21, 1886; Joseph A., born May 21, 1888; El- 
len, born January 9, 189 1 ; Hamilton L., born 
September 15, 1892; Mary M., born March 

22, 1897; Ruth, born January 21, 1900. 

ROMAN LIEPERT. 

Having experienced many changes in his 
eventful life and as a pioneer participating in 
the manifold hardships and privations which 
ever fall to the lot of the early settlers, yet 
meeting them all courageously and success- 
fully, Roman Liepert, now an exemplary and 
progressive farmer of near Rexburg, is surely 
entitled to representation in any compilation 
prepared to commemorate the acts and deeds 
of the men who have been the active builders 
of the civilization of this productive section 
of the state of Idaho. Mr. Liepert was born 
at Mieringen, Germany, on May 31, 1854, a 
son of Conrad and Carolina (Hertkorn) Lie- 
pert, the father being a skilled workman in 
locksmithing, in which his son Roman early 
acquired proficiency. When he was sixteen 
years old, Roman, with his mother and two 
sisters, all of whom had espoused the doc- 
trines of the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
crossed the Atlantic to America, thereafter 
continuing their journey westward and cross- 
ing the broad expanse of the western plains 



with an ox-team company of Mormon emi- 
grants, being only saved from utter destruc- 
tion by the band of hostile Indians who sacked 
the town of Salina, Kans., and murdered the 
people on the very day of the emigrants' ar- 
rival, by being on the opposite side of the 
river. 

In 1876 Mr. Liepert engaged in mining 
and in freighting operations to Nevada, being 
prosperously connected with them for some 
years. In 1884 he came to the Upper Valley 
of the Snake River of Idaho, where, on Sep- 
tember 1, at Lyman, he located on a home- 
stead of 160 acres, the relinquishment of 
which he sold one year later, thence moving 
to Rexburg, where he engaged in farming, 
but after four years he was compelled to leave 
the land which he was cultivating as it was a 
part of a school section. His next location 
was on the place he now occupies, five miles 
west of Rexburg, where his indefatigable en- 
ergy and characteristic industry and thrift 
have brought a highly improved property out 
of the original parched and dusty desert con- 
ditions, and his farming and stockraising op- 
erations here conducted have attained great 
scope and importance, and in the pursuance 
of his work of development he has been con- 
nected with all of the irrigating systems of 
his vicinity, being the water director of the 
Rexburg Irrigation Canal Co. and the vice- 
president of the Consolidated Farmers' Canal 
Co., heading on the north bank of the Snake 
River, and on the location of his present fertile 
estate, in the primitive days, before the settlers 
had ever traveled on the trail leading hither, 
the daring horsethieves and "rustlers," oper- 
ating in the Snake River Valley and Jackson 
Hole, had here established one of their sta- 
tions and stamping grounds. 

Mr. Liepert has ever done his duty as a 
broad and liberal-minded citizen in all things 
tending to the betterment of the community 



644 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



and the county, being known as a prosperous 
and representative citizen of a high standing 
and character, enjoying the good will and sin- 
cere friendship of a large circle of acquaint- 
ances. As a Republican he was elected as a 
justice of the peace in 1896, serving four years 
with conceded ability, having also served for 
twelve years as a school trustee to the evident 
benefit of the schools, and holding the office 
of road supervisor for six years and being now 
in this position. He has been conspicuously 
favored in the conferring of important ecclesi- 
astical honors upon him by his superiors in 
church relations, being ordained deacon when 
nineteen years of age, later holding the office 
of teacher for six years, priest for two years 
and elder for six years. Then he was one of 
the Seventies, later a high priest and he is now 
holding the responsible trust of counsellor to 
the bishop of Burton ward, all of the duties 
devolving upon him being conscientiously and 
efficaciously discharged. 

His marriage Vith Miss Maria E. Young 
was solemnized at Salt Lake City on June 27, 
1878, her parents being Josiah and Elizabeth 
(Kennedy) Young, natives of the picturesque 
Island of Jersey in the British Channel, north 
of France, where the father was a cabinetma- 
ker until emigrating in 1854, that he might 
be of the number to build up the new Zion in 
the desert lands of Utah. They settled at 
Provo. where the parents' lives were passed in 
useful activities for many years, the father dy- 
ing in l8q4, at seventy-six years of age, and 
the mother is now residing at Fairfield, Utah. 
having attained the venerable age of eighty 
years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Liepert have had eleven chil- 
dren born to their union: Caroline E., born 
March 12, 1879; Maria E., born December 
7. 1880; Roman R., born October 9, 1882: 
Thomas H., born September 9, 1884; Freder- 
ick D.. born September 9, 1886, died April 5, 



1891 ; Iva M., bom September 4, 1888: Lo- 
renzo, born August 15, 1890; Sophia, born 
April 24, 1892, died May 9, 1892; George Y\".. 
born June 26, 1893 ; Irving M., born August 
4, 1895; Violet E.., born April 29, 1898. 

WESLEY H. ELLISON. 

One of the old heroic band of pioneers 
who bravely dared all the perils of savage life, 
the deprivations and hardships incident to the 
early days in California, Montana, and other 
portions of the Great West in the time when 
placer mining for gold was the chief industry 
to be pursued, W. H. Ellison is now pleasantly 
located on a productive ranch of 160 acres, 
one mile west and three miles south of the 
thriving, inchoate city of Rigby, Fremont 
county, Idaho. He was born on October 16. 
1837, in Monroe county, then Virginia, but 
now by the segregation of the western half 
of the state falling under the designation of 
West Virginia. He is the son of Joseph and 
Jane (Garvin) Ellison, natives of Virginia, 
both of them dying within six weeks of each 
other in 1855, the father aged sixty-six years 
and the mother sixty-five. 

W. H. Ellison was but eighteen years old 
when the exigencies of life forced him to com- 
mence life for himself and he continued the 
management of the family homestead for two 
years. Then coming to Iowa, he attended 
school for eighteen months, then returning to 
West A^irginia to close up the affairs of his fa- 
ther's estate, thereafter going to Kansas and 
searching for good investment properties, pur- 
chasing some fine farming land and during 
the five years of his residence in that state he 
disposed of a portion of it at remunerative 
prices. 

In T862 he went to California as a gold- 
miner, traversing the plains with ox teams at 
a time when the Indians were extremelv hos- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



645 



tile, and to ensure safety four of the trains, 
113 wagons, joined in one caravan. One train 
of thirteen wagons became dissatisfied with 
some of the arrangements and started on in 
advance of the others, the result being that 
they were attacked by Indians and had it not 
been for the timely aid of the companions they 
had forsaken "they would all have perished. 
Everything but the stock was rescued, how- 
ever, and a posse of forty men started to re- 
cover that, but they were driven back by the 
Indians with a loss of five men, only two be- 
ing recovered, one of whom named Lieper, 
was scalped, and over his head Mr. Ellison 
tied a silk handkerchief so as to conceal the 
fact from Lieper's sister, the only female mem- 
ber of his party. 

Mr. Ellison's California trip did not prove 
profitable and when in 1863 the celebrated 
John Day mines were discovered in Oregon he 
and a partner started overland for the hew 
fields with pack broncos, enduring many se- 
vere hardships on their six- weeks journey. 
For three years Mr. Ellison remained at Can- 
yon, Ore., in 1865 going on an unsuccessful 
trip to West Bannock and three weeks later 
started for Montana, but hearing discouraging 
reports from people coming from that terri- 
tory, he turned back and wintered in Salt 
Lake City, the next spring, however, going to 
Montana, where he engaged in freighting op- 
erations from Fort Benton to the mining 
camps and other points of the state for over 
two years. Returning then to Utah, he was 
connected with quartz mining in the Big Cot- 
tonwood region for several years with grati- 
fying results, so that he purchased two ranches 
in different places, each containing 160 acres. 
Later selling his ranches, in 1888 he came to 
Bannock county, Idaho, in that then un- 
developed section, securing a desert claim of 
320 acres, a pre-emption claim of 160 acres, 
adding to his estate 160 acres more by pur- 



chase. Here he conducted farming and stock- 
raising successfully, but he has since sold all 
but 160 acres of this property. 

Mr. Ellison became a citizen of Fremont 
county in 1901, purchasing the quarter section 
of productive land on which he now resides, 
lying two miles west and three miles south of 
Rigby, which is his postoffice address. On this 
fertile property Mr. Ellison is developing one 
of the most attractive homes of the Upper 
Valley. He is considered a model citizen, 
whose broad-minded liberality and charity is 
never checked, all matters of public improve- 
ment or private beneficence being alike the re- 
cipients of his aid and assistance, his cordiality 
being noteworthy and his hospitality that of 
the typical "old-timer," whose latch-string al- 
ways hangs out. 

Mr. Ellison married, first, with Miss Eliza 
Sparks Newell, at Salt Lake City, on Novem- 
ber 23, 1877. She was born on March 29, 
1840, at Middlesex, England, the daughter of 
Samuel G. and Anna E. (Zarn) Newell, her 
father dying but a few months after her birth, 
in August, 1840, the mother surviving until 
she too died in July, 1861. Three children 
came by this marriage to Mr. Ellison, Priscilla 
E., Abraham (deceased), and Alice C. By a 
second marriage Mr. Ellison became father to 
two children, John W., born on August 13, 
1879, and Jane G., born on March 10, 18S1. 

ORRIN M. MYLER. 

Numbered among the progressive and pub- 
lic-spirited citizens of Fremont county, Idaho, 
where he came as one of the pioneers of pio- 
neers in 1882 and having since that time been 
conspicuously identified with many matters of 
a public character, as well as holding offices 
of moment in the Church of Latter Day 
Saints, Orrin M. Myler is recognized today 
as a citizen of exeat sagacitv, stability of char- 



646 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



acter and earnestness of purpose, who is pros- 
perously engaged in diversified farming opera- 
tions upon his well-watered and highly im- 
proved homestead of 160 acres, near Lewis- 
ville, which bears the stamp of his well- 
directed and discriminating efforts and in- 
dustry. 

Mr. Myler was born on September 14, 
1856, at Farmington, Utah, the son of James 
and Julia Ann (Brownell) Myler, naives of 
Michigan, who in 1849, one of the earliest 
years of the Mormon migration, performed the 
long and hazardous journey across the plains, 
suffering the attendant discomforts and hard- 
ships, and locating at Farmington. where the 
father was alloted twenty acres of land, which 
he improved and cultivated for five years, there- 
after removing to Logan. Utah, where he took 
up land and continued to be employed in ag- 
ricultural labors for the long period of thirty 
years, by his thrift, diligence and persevering 
endeavors, changing the entire aspect of his 
property, reducing it to a state of highly pro- 
ductive fertility. In 1882 he became a pioneer 
of the Upper Snake River country, locating 
on a tract of land in the Lewisville district, 
which was the scene of his well-directed ener- 
gies during the remaining years of his life, 
his death occurring in May, 1897, and that of 
his capable and efficient wife four years later, 
both having attained seventy-two years of life. 

Orrin M. Myler was reared in a home at- 
mosphere decidedly conducive to honest in- 
dustry and integrity, remaining" with his par- 
'ents diligently employed in the industries of 
the parental homestead until he engaged in 
farming on his own account in the Cache Val- 
ley, continuing to be so employed until 1882, 
when he joined his father in his migration to 
what is now Fremont county, Idaho, there 
using his right in the location of a homestead 
near Lewisville. He has steadily since de- 
voted his time and attention to the develop- 



ment and cultivation of his land, being pros- 
pered in his labors as a proper reward for the 
careful discrimination he has taken in his 
methods to win success. He was the first 
one to assist in taking out canals for irrigating 
purposes, has been a director and is now a 
stockholder in the Parks and Lewisville Canal 
Co. On account of the shifting and changing 
character of the river in this part of its course 
Mr. Myler, as well as others, has been put V > a 
great expense. Among the great plagues of 
the early life of this section were the innumer- 
able and immense swarms of mosquitoes that 
often made life almost unendurable. 

Mr. Myler is a Democrat in political affili- 
ations and in 1902 he was elected a justice of 
the peace and he is now in the incumbency of 
that office. He was ordained an elder of the 
Mormon church in 1865, holding the office 
consecutively until his removal from Utah in 
1882, after his arrival at Lewisville being made 
a counsellor to the bishop of Lewisville ward, 
and he is now in the incumbency of the office 
of high priest. 

Mr. Myler married with Miss Elizal)eth 
Stokes on November 8. 1874. her birth oc- 
curring at Staffordshire. England, on February 
5, 1857. being the daughter of Henry and 
Elizabeth (Hale) Stokes, and the fifth in a 
family of eleven children, the parents coming 
to New York in i860 and in 1862 continuing 
across the continent to LJtah, where they estab- 
lished their home in the Cache Valley and were 
highly cherished and useful citizens for twenty 
years, and after this they came to Lewisville. 
Idaho, where is now their home. 

Mrs. Myler has been a capable helpmeet 
to her husband in his various labors, taking an 
active and a leading part in social and reli- 
gious circles, and holding with a courteous 
dignity the offices of counsellor of the Relief 
Society and president of the Young Ladies' 
Mutual Association, holding- the latter office 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



647 



at this writing. A large family of children 
constitute the offspring of Mr. and Mrs. My- 
ler, Sarah E., born September 2, 1875 ; Mary 
J., bom November 22, 1877; Eliza O., born 
April 25, 1880; Alice A., born March 4, 1882; 
Orrin M., born November 20, 1886; Calvin, 
born November 17, 1888, died February 11, 
1889; Lorenzo, born August 2, 1890; John 
and William, twins, born November 23, 1895, 
William died at birth ; Lester, born November 
21, 1893, died January 3, 1896; James M., 
born April 26, 1897 ; Eulalia, born August 26, 
1899. 

GEORGE BRIGGS. 

One of the finest specimens of physical 
manhood, accompanied with mental character- 
istics of a high order, to be found in the whole 
of the Upper Snake River Valley of Idaho, 
where his large and finely developed estate 
of over 800 acres of productive land is lo- 
cated at Archer, Fremont county, where he is 
also conducting mercantile operations of scope 
and importance, George Briggs well deserves 
an appropriate mention in any biographical 
record or compilation of the careers of the 
progressive men of southern Idaho. Mr. 
Briggs descends from families of ancient ex- 
traction in England, where he was born on 
October 15, 1858, at Lupton, Derbyshire, the 
son of Charles and Mary A. (Worrall) Briggs, 
who, emigrating in 1879, made their home in 
Davis county, Utah, where the father con- 
ducted agricultural operations on a rented 
farm for three years, thereafter coming to 
Idaho, where he located on 120 acres of gov- 
ernment land and where he is still residing, 
actively engaged in farming and in the devel- 
opment and improvement of his place, having 
attained the age of sixty-six years at this writ- 
ing. 

George Briggs made his first independent 
business in life that of leaving: his native land 



and the home of his many generations of an- 
cestors, and crossing the broad Atlantic to 
America, tarrying not on the way nor linger- 
ing until he arrived at Salt Lake City, Utah, 
soon after that event entering the service of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, later being con- 
nected with coalmining operations in Wyo- 
ming, thence after one year's time being em- 
ployed by the Central Pacific for two years, 
the latter one being passed in the railroad 
shops at Evanston, Wyo., whence he returned 
to Utah to become connected with the burn- 
ing of lime for one year. Then in 1883 he de- 
termined to avail himself of the potent possi- 
bilities awaiting the hand of the diligent 
worker in the Upper Snake River Valley of 
Idaho, and proceeding thither, on July 4, 1883, 
he permanently identified himself with this 
productive country by drawing the first load 
of logs to" be used in building his pioneer 
cabin on his "squatter's claim," the land not 
yet having been surveyed. Diligent and untir- 
ing labor for weeks, months and years fol- 
lowed and still the work of development and 
improvement went on. As soon as the gov- 
ernment survey was accomplished Mr. Briggs 
"proved up" on the land and has since added 
to his acreage until he now has a valuable and 
well-watered estate of 843 acres, yielding an 
annual income of handsome proportions. Irri- 
gation from the first was the primal factor of 
success and in this direction Mr. Briggs has 
been .unceasing in his endeavors, being one of 
the inceptors and a stockholder in several of the 
important canal companies, notably the Con- 
solidated and Square-top Grove Companies, 
in each of these being a director and holding 
the presidency of the company. In politics 
Mr. Briggs is aligned with the Democratic 
party, believing that its principles and policies 
are those best adapted to preserve the freedom 
and enlightenment of the people, and in every 
public matter of general or local character he 



648 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



is an active participant, while his hand is never 
Withheld from aiding any beneficent object. 
Success is a usual result of his well-considered 
and discriminating plans in business and finan- 
cial affairs and he is considered one of the 
most prosperous men in all the region of the 
valley. Further than this, the religious ele- 
ment of his nature is so strongly manifested 
that he has been called unto highly important 
offices in the Church of Latter Day Saints, be- 
ing ordained teacher in 1879, then proceeding 
through different consecrations into the sta- 
tions of elder and high priest until in 1902 he 
was ordained and consecrated as bishop. 

At Evanston, Wyo., on December 9, 1878, 
Mr. Briggs and Miss Sarah S. Blackburn were 
wedded. This marriage was in the highest 
measure a congenial one and the happiest of re- 
sults have followed it. Mrs. Briggs was born 
at Clayton, Lancashire, England, on April 15, 
1859, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah S. 
(Lamb) Blackburn, natives also of Lancashire 
and descendants of somewhat distinguished 
English families, representatives of both 
names appearing prominently in English his- 
torical records, for many generations. The fa- 
ther, born on May 4. 1827, died in England 
on January 7, 1866, the mother, born April 
27. 1827. bringing her family to America and 
to Salt Lake City in 1879, and some years 
later she remarried, becoming the wife of John 
Chatterton, with whom she resided until her 
death, on March 7, 1895. A large and inter- 
esting family of children have come to the fire- 
side of Mr. and Mrs. Briggs, a brief notice 
of whom will appropriately close this review : 
Charles B., born April 26, 1880; Sarah S., born 
December 18, 1881. died October 21, 1890; 
George, born August 13, 1883; Esther, born 
September 1, 1886; Pearl B., born March 21, 
1888; Joseph, born November 15, 1889, died 
June 5, 189 1 ; Florence, born July 10. 1891 ; 
Mary Ann, born June n, 1893; William J.. 



born January 27, 1895, died February 25. 
1895; Alice, born April 28, 1896; Clara E., 
born January 27, 1900; Alma, born May 26, 
1901 ; Rachel, born June 30. 1902. 

JOSIAH CALL. 

The pioneers of Fremont county, Idaho, 
have builded better than the} - knew, for com- 
ing generations will look back with awe and 
veneration to their heroic occupation of this 
desert country, with its miles and miles of 
stunted sagebrush plains, broken only by 
clumps and patches of prickly pear and other 
varieties of cacti, wild roses and here and 
there small copses of willows, the animal life 
consisting of deer, elks, bears, wolves, coyotes, 
and the devastating squirrels and rabbits, even- 
aspect of nature being a forbidding one. Even 
the bringing of the vitalizing water, by the 
potency of its magical power to unlock the en- 
ergies of the arid soil whose potentialities had 
been confined for generations of ages, was a 
task involving much careful consideration and 
the united labor of many hands for long peri- 
ods of time in the construction of canals, 
ditches and reservoirs. Among these sterling 
pioneers stands forth conspicuously Josiah 
Call, who for the past twenty years has been 
one of the diligent actors in this drama of life 
in new lands and who is now one of the pros- 
perous and popular citizens of Rigby, where 
he is engaged in the dual branches of agricul- 
ture, farming and stock-raising. 

Mr. Call was born on April 18, 1862. at 
Willard, Box Elder county, Utah, a son of 
Homer and Nancy (Merrill) Call, natives of 
Ohio and members of a family of whom sev- 
eral became residents of Utah, the parents lo- 
cating at Willard, where the father was a 
farmer on a farm of 160 acres. In 1868, in 
association with his twin brother, he built a 
flouring mill at Willard; which they continued 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



649 



to operate until 1887, when Homer returned 
again to agriculture, engaging in extensive 
farming and cattleraising operations in which 
he still continues, being sixty-nine years old, 
the mother having passed to her reward in 
1883, at forty-four years of age. 

Josiah Call, at the age of eighteen years, 
became the master of his own career, initiating 
his life work by engaging in freighting opera- 
tions for one year, thereafter becoming con- 
nected for one year with construction work on 
the Denver & South Park and the Denver & 
North Oregon Railroads. He then engaged 
in getting out railroad ties for one year and 
for another year conducted the farming labor 
on his father's farm, and then, in 1883, came 
to the Snake River country and, using his 
homestead right, becoming the owner of 160 
acres of land most eligibly located immediately 
adjacent to the Rigby townsite on the north- 
east side. From that year he has been con- 
spicuously identified with the welfare and 
growth of the section, developing by his ear- 
nest endeavors and sagacious plans a fertile 
and well-watered farm, whose bounteous 
crops of wheat, hay, potatoes, etc., mark Mr. 
Call as one of the highly favored and suc- 
cessful agriculturists of the section. 

In connection with all of the early settlers 
he aided in building the irrigating canals ne- 
cessity caused the people to construct, holding 
stock in the Rigby Canal Co., of which he 
has been both a director and the president, 
and he is now serving as the secretary of the 
company, having been elected, in March, 1902. 
In political relations he is stanchly arrayed 
with the Republican party, and in 1893 he was 
appointed justice of the peace of Rigby, hold- 
ing the position with unqualified ability. In 
his church relations he has ever been esteemed 
a conscientious worker and a consistent mem- 
ber, holding the office of elder for eighteen 
years, and he has been in the incumbency of his 



present office of high priest for seventeen con- 
secutive years. 

The marriage of Mr. Call and Miss Dove 
Facer was solemnized at Logan, Utah, on De- 
cember 18, 1884. She is the daughter of 
George and Mary (Prior) Facer, natives of 
England, whence they came at an early day 
to Utah, on the plains being members of one 
of the historic handcart brigades, and estab- 
lishing their home at Willard, the father there 
engaging in agricultural pursuits and in sheep- 
raising, and both father and mother are now 
residing on the original homestead. 

Mr. and Mrs. Call have been blessed with 
an intelligent and dutiful family of children, 
whose names and births we here record : Oel 
F., born November 24, 1885 ; Mary Nancy, 
born November 28, 1887; Ethel May, born 
April 21, 1890; Elmo Josiah, born January 
25, 1893 ; Dove Alida, born October 3, 1896 ; 
Royal Glenn, born April 30, 1900; Vivian A., 
born April 19, 1902. 

CASPER STINER. 

A native of that sterling little republic of 
Switzerland, and at the age of sixteen years 
coining to the United States, from that time 
being - actively engaged in various laudable oc- 
cupations in Utah and Idaho, by his earnest 
efforts to increase his own financial impor- 
tance becoming an important aid in the devel- 
opment of the different locations in which he 
has been a resident, Casper Stiner, now a pros- 
perous and representative stockraiser of Fre- 
mont county, Idaho, where his home is now 
maintained in the immediate vicinity of Rex- 
burg, was born in the canton of Bern, Swit- 
zerland, the son of John and Mary A. (Chris- 
tian) Stiner, and his lineage stretches back 
through many generations in his native land. 
The father, who was born on December 27, 
1802, learned the mason's trade and carried 



650 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



it on in Switzerland until 1870, when having 
joined the Mormon church, he joined a com- 
pany which had for its destination the prom- 
ised land of Utah. After his arrival he located 
at Logan, where he resumed mason work, be- 
ing employed in the erection of the Mormon 
temple, the courthouse and numerous other 
important buildings of the city. His death 
took place on February 15, 1887, at the age 
of eighty-five years, his wife, the mother of 
the immediate subject of this memoir, having 
departed this life in Switzerland in 1862, at 
the age of fifty-four years. 

Coming to America at the age of sixteen 
years, and making his way to Utah by the 
tedious travel over the plains as a member of 
a Mormon ox-team caravan, upon his arrival 
Casper Stiner engaged in the herding of 
sheep, industriously and consecutively follow- 
ing this vocation for the long period of eleven 
years, thereafter conducting fanning opera- 
tions in the vicinity of Logan in the Cache 
Valley, until 1884, when he came to Fremont 
county, Idaho, in the neighborhood of Rex- 
burg taking up a government homestead claim 
of 160 acres situated one-half mile east of 
Rexburg. He immediately occupied himself 
with its improvements, putting up a cabin and 
removing his family thither in 1885, where they 
still reside. Mr. Stiner has greatly developed 
and improved the place, having paid great at- 
tention to the securing of water, from his first 
arrival having aided in the construction of ir- 
rigating ditches and canals, at once holding the 
office of director in the Rexburg Irrigation 
Canal Co. Diversified farming is very profitably 
conducted on his ranch by Mr. Stiner, and he 
is the owner of a fine band of cattle, although 
stockraising is not his main industry. In poli- 
tics he gives his vote and influence to the Re- 
publican party, while as a consistent member 
of the Church of Latter Day Saints his serv- 
ices have been demanded in numerous offices 



of the church. He was made the first high 
counsellor of the local church at its organiza- 
tion, has since been a counsellor to Bishop 
Winters of the second ward, at the present time 
of writing holding the station of high priest. 
Mr. Stiner wedded Miss Elizabeth Spru- 
nunger, a daughter of John and Mary A. 
(Wirth) Sprununger, natives of Switzerland, 
who, emigrating thence in 1875, settled at Lo- 
gan, Utah, where the father was engaged in 
various occupations, his death occurring at 
Rexburg, in 18S6, the mother now residing 
at Rexburg, having attained the venerable age 
of seventy-four years and being held in ven- 
eration by her numerous descendants and a 
large number of friends. The names, births, 
etc., of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Stiner 
we give as follows: Mary A., born at Logan, 
January 26. 1875. died October 30. 1875; 
George Casper, born February 13, 1876; John 
E., born May 29, 1879; Sarah E., born Sep- 
tember 8, 1881 ; Lillie Emily, born September 
7, 1883: Moses A., born September 9. 1885; 
Wilford W., born April 23, 1888. died June 9. 
1888; Fred H., born May 4, 1889. died De- 
cember 29. 1889; Martha R.. born January 26. 
1 89 1, died February 1, 1891 ; M. Violet, born 
born August 17, 1895; Joseph L.. born Sep- 
tember 10, 1896, died November 9. 1901. 

JOHN D. KILLPACK. Jr. 

For many generations the ancestors of John 
C. Killpack, Jr., who is now one of the leading 
citizens of Fremont county, Idaho, where he 
is now in the incumliency of the highly compli- 
mentary office of member of the lower house 
of the Idaho Legislature, having been of the 
plain people, a sturdy stock, fearlessly hold- 
ing the tenets of their religious faith and ever 
being citizens of the highest character with in- 
tellectual development and understanding to 
fully grapple with the problems arising in 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



651 



either social, civil or political affairs. Mr. 
Killpack was born on July 29, 1878, at Manti, 
Utah, the son of John D. and Helen (Peacock) 
Killpack, the father, whose birth occurred at 
Salt Lake City, being the son of an early and 
leading Mormon immigrant. After attaining 
maturity, becoming a farmer and stockraiser 
and removing to Castle Valley, in Emery 
count}'', Utah, he there acquired desert and 
homestead claims, on which he located for its 
development and culture, adding at intervals to 
his realty until he now has a fine landed es- 
tate of goo acres of fertile land in a high de- 
gree of improvement, and holding with ability 
and to the satisfaction of the people the offices 
of county assessor and collector of the county. 
For the past four years he has been associated 
with his son, the subject of this review, in 
merchandising. 

At an early age and while securing the ele- 
ments of his literary education in the schools 
of Emery county, Utah, John D. Killpack, Jr., 
manifested unusual elements of scholarship 
and at the age of thirteen years he matricu- 
lated at the Brigham Young Academy of 
Provo, where he diligently supplemented his 
previous study for two years, thereafter en- 
gaging in the sheep business in association 
with his father. His abilities were, however, 
demanded by the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
in whose faith and tenets he had been faithfully 
educated from childhood, and at the age of 
seventeen years he was sent on mission labor 
to North Carolina, where success attended his 
conscientious efforts and he was actively em- 
ployed for a period of three years. 

On November 9, 1898, at Manti, Utah, 
Mr. Killpack wedded Miss Nettie Shipp, of 
Castle Dale, Utah, and in the spring of 1901 
removed to the Snake River Valley of Idaho, 
where he has since maintained his home at 
Rexburg, being the special representative in 
this section of the Mutual Insurance Co. A 



stalwart Republican in political affiliations, his 
recognition as a suitable person to capably hold 
official places of trust and responsibility was 
manifested in the convention of his party m 
1902, where he was nominated as its candi- 
date for member of the state Legislature and 
at the November election his nomination was 
ratified at the polls by a flattering vote and 
election and he is now in the incumbency of the 
office. The parents of Mrs. Killpack were 
Austin and Samantha (McDonough) Shipp, 
the father dying at Salt Lake City in 1888 and 
the mother now residing with her daughter, 
Mrs. Killpack. A winsome little daughter, 
Eva, came to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kill- 
pack on November 28, 1902, adding a new 
charm to a home that has ever been noted for 
its cordial hospitality and cultured refinement. 
It will be seen that Mr. Killpack is pos- 
sessed of the sterling traits of his sturdy an- 
cestors, self-reliance, self-support and indepen- 
dence, and that the progress he has made and 
the preferments with which he has been hon- 
ored have come as the results of his own mer- 
its and qualifications for the various positions, 
and it is eminently proper to here state that 
he is fully worthy of the confidence and es- 
teem reposed in him, and it is the expectation 
of his numerous friends that, if Providence 
kindly spares him health and strength, other 
and higher honors will from the same reason 
in due time come to him. 

TIMOTHY J. WINTER. 

When one considers "for one minute even 
the marvelous achievements of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in its settle- 
ment and development of the vast intermoun- 
tain section of the Great West of America, the 
splendor of the success and the wonderful and 
steady growth of that religious organization 
stand out silhouetted against the dark back- 



652 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



ground of the bleak and savage conditions 
that here confronted its labors, and it is with 
a feeling of awe that any person of logical 
reasoning powers beholds them.' An influence 
overpowering all earthly considerations must 
have operated in bringing the vast multitudes 
that year after year swarmed from every civ- 
ilized land to the land of Deseret, a sagacity 
heretofore unknown to human potentates or 
peoples must have planned the disposition of 
these countless throngs in self-sustaining com- 
munities in a land of treeless deserts and the 
great originators of this potent movement 
must have been well skilled in the science of 
reading human nature to have so wisely and 
so well have chosen the spiritual as well as the 
temporal leaders of the mighty army of the 
followers of the faith. Such are the reflections 
which come to mind in considering the unos- 
tentatious but eminently productive career of 
Timothy J. Winters, who in both the civil and 
religious departments of life has been called to 
high and responsible positions, all of which 
have been held with fidelity, ability and in the 
fear of the Lord. Bishop Winter was born on 
December 6. 1858, in Salt Lake City, the son 
of Thomas W. and Mary (Clayton) Winter, the 
former of whom emigrated from their native 
land of England in 1S51, tarrying on his way 
to Utah for one year at St. Louis and then 
continuing the journey to Salt Lake City where 
he became a prominent citizen, in the church 
becoming the bishop of the fifth ward, holding 
this office with conceded ability and power for 
a series of years, at his death, in 1882, having 
attained the age of seventy years. The mother 
came to Salt Lake from England in 1854. 
where her marriage took place, and after a 
long and quiet life of continual and sanctified 
usefulness she was called from earth at George- 
town. Idaho, being the mother of four chil- 
dren, of whom Timothy J. was the eldest and 
the onlv son. 



The subject commenced business life for 
himself at the age of fourteen years, enter- 
ing the bookbinding department of the Des- 
eret News at Salt Lake City, one year later 
entering the service of S. W. Sears, a promi- 
nent grain merchant, and with him and his 
brother Isaac he was associated for eleven 
years. Immediately subsequent to this period 
in 1885 Mr. Winter came to the Snake River 
Valley of Idaho, where from that time to the 
present he has been a most potential factor in 
the prosperity of the whole country and a --till 
greater one in the building up of Rexburg into 
an important center of trade. 

Here, in connection with C. I. Durrans. he 
established a mercantile house under the firm 
name of Durrans, Winter & Co., which rap- 
idly gained popularity and prosperity so that 
in 1889 they occupied a large stone structure, 
erected especially to meet the enormous de- 
mands of their trade, which stood easily at the 
front of all the mercantile houses of the county, 
and their business was still increasing, when, 
on December 23, 1896, a devastating fire swept 
the store and their large stock away in a few 
hours, involving the firm in an immense loss 
above their slight insurance. The) - soon re- 
sumed business in a smaller way and a year 
later sold their establishment to the Rexburg 
Mercantile Co. 

On May 23, 1899, he became the manager 
of the Rexburg Milling Co.. and in this posi- 
tion he still continues, his executive ability be- 
ing amply demonstrated by the largely in- 
creased business of the company and the ex- 
tent of its operations, the excellent products of 
its mills being demanded not only throughout 
Idaho hnt sold largely in Utah. Wyoming. 
Montana. Washington and Oregon. A stal- 
wart Republican in political adherence, he has 
ever stood high in the esteem of the leaders 
of his part}- in the state and has given active 
and highly efficient endeavors in its service 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



653 



and, on the organization of Fremont county, 
in 1893, Mr. Winter was honored by Gov. 
W. J. McConnell with the appointment of 
county treasurer, serving in this office with 
such pronounced integrity and financial skill, 
that he was nominated by his party to be his 
own successor, and this nomination was rati- 
fied at the subsequent election by a flattering 
vote. His full incumbency of the treasurer's 
office was marked by a full recognition of his 
duties, an application to its details and a kindly 
and courteous treatment of every one having 
business to transact with him. 

His earnest devotion to the Church of Lat- 
ter Day Saints has ever been pronounced, and 
he was ordained and set apart to fill the bish- 
opric of Rexburg ward and when the second 
and third wards of the town were united, he 
was chosen as the bishop of this new ward, 
Rexburg second ward. 

On April 14, 1882, occurred the marriage 
of Mr. Winter and Miss Agnes Cowan, a 
daughter of Andrew and Ann (Smellie) Co- 
wan, natives of Scotland, who were early ar- 
rivals in the territory of Utah, and, locating 
at Salt Lake City, the father carried on for 
years his trade of plasterer and dying in 1893, 
the mother surviving until April, 1901, when 
she too crossed the river of death. The home 
circle of Bishop Winter is expanded by the 
following named children : Purcell C, Ethel 
(deceased), Jessie A., Timothy O. (deceased), 
Frank, Agnes (died in infancy), Hazel P., 
Louis G., Ruth and Rea (twins), Leland C. 
We can perhaps no better close this sketch than 
to use the langxiage of another writer who has 
enjoyed most favorable opportunities of an 
intimate acquaintance with the Bishop and his 
family : "Bishop Winter is the proprietor and 
occupant of the first rock house erected in Rex- 
burg, where, nestled in a beautiful grove of 
shade trees, surrounded by a delightsome lawn 
and garden, the Bishop and his estimable fam- 



ily are snugly located in one of the coziest little 
homes that Idaho possesses. As a bishop he is 
loved and respected by the members of his 
ward for the interest he manifests in their wel- 
fare. In sickness he is always first to lend his 
members a helping hand and in health he is 
ever ready to encourage them to energy and 
well doing. His cheerful and pleasant dispo- 
sition constitutes him one whose presence is 
ever welcomed in any society, and few indeed 
there are whose absence would be more keenly 
felt in social, domestic, public or ecclesiastical 
affairs in Fremont county than Bishop T. J. 
Winter." 

SVEN JACOBS. 

Tracing his ancestral line to the intelligent 
kingdom of Norway and after a life of steady 
and productive labor and a high character of 
citizenship, Sven Jacobs is now prosperously 
and pleasantly located on his productive ranch 
of 200 acres on Teton Island, in Fremont 
county, Idaho, being a man standing in high 
regard in the community for his industrious 
habits, his geniality, his ability and his genuine 
worth. He spent his youth in Utah, acquiring 
the blacksmithing trade and a suitable knowl- 
edge of farming, and at the age of twenty-one 
years combined both of these activities, locat- 
ing at Newton, in the Cache Valley of Utah, 
there purchasing ten acres of land and was in 
business there until 1883, when, selling his 
property, he came to the Snake River Valley 
and took up 160 acres of land five miles north- 
east of Rexburg, which property he later sold 
and made his home at the lower end of Teton 
Island, where he became the owner of 320 
acres of land, of which he has since sold 120 
acres, leaving him with" a fine estate of 200 
acres on which he is prosperously conducting 
farming and the raising of stock. His persist- 
ent labors and his well-planned endeavors have 
met with a due reward and caused him to be 



654 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



considered a man of independent financial re- 
sources. In politics he has ever been noted 
for his unswerving devotion to the Republican 
party, never at any time deviating from its 
candidates at an election. He was baptized 
and confirmed as a member of the Church of 
Latter Day Saints at the early age of nine 
years and from that time he has given most 
earnest devotion to the interests of the church, 
being ordained a priest of the Aaronic order 
at Newton. Utah, in 1864, ordained as an el- 
der on February 8, 1879, and on May 16, 
1886, he was ordained at Rexburg as a mem- 
ber of the Seventies. He has been since 1896 
a counsellor to the bishop of Island ward. 

On February 18, 1879, occurred the mar- 
riage of Sven Jacobs with Miss Emily S. Lutz, 
a daughter of Thomas J. and Mary A. (Mer- 
rill) Lutz, the father being born in Philadel- 
phia, Pa., in 1837, and the mother in New Jer- 
sey on July 28, 1840. They were married in 
LUah, both having crossed the plains with ox- 
team caravans, and begun their married life 
at Smithfield. Utah, where Mr. Lutz conducted 
harnessmaking until he removed to Rexburg 
and made preparations to engage in farming, 
taking up 160 acres of government land. Re- 
turning to Smithfield on business in 1882 he 
was there taken ill and died, being then forty- 
seven years of age. His widow, the mother 
of Mrs. Jacobs, is now residing at Rexburg at 
the age of sixty-two years. Ten children have 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, and their 
names and births follow: Ezra E.. born May 
4. 1880. died October 23, 188 1 ; Mary Ethel, 
born October 2, 188 1 ; Thomas Leo, born Oc- 
tober 2, 1883; Sarah Emily, born April 10, 
1885, died April 21, 1885; Swenora, bom Au- 
gust 8, 1887: Lucy Lyda, born October 8, 
1889; Elva Lenora, born Febniarv 7, 1892; 
Effie Susanna, born April 21, 1894; Orrin 
Albert, born January 29, 1896: Zola Theresa, 
born September 30, 1902. 



Sven Jacobs is the son of Sven and Sarah 
(Hopkins) Jacobs, the father being a native 
of Norway and the mother of Clinton county. 
Ohio, her parents crossing the plains in the 
days of the oxcart and handcart migrations 
and from the time of their marriage their In \me 
was at Lehi, Utah, until 1881, when, coming 
to Rexburg, they located on a homestead five 
miles northeast of that thriving town and on 
the Teton River, where the father died on 
January 3, 1881, at the age of sixty-four years, 
the mother still surviving and living at Rex- 
burg and Salem, having accomplished sixty- 
seven years of life. The father was a soldier 
in active service during the Black Hawk war. 
participating in gallant fighting, and the sub- 
ject of this article is the second son of the 
family of ten sons and three daughters. 

IRA N. HINCKLEY. 

The work of the pioneer settler in the Up- 
per Snake River Valley had but fairly com- 
menced when Ira Nathaniel Hinckley, then a 
man of less than thirty years of age. joined 
his lot with the faithful toilers in the work 
of the reclamation of the sagebrush plains, and 
from that time he has been an active producer 
and not a drone in the society of Rexburg and 
vicinity, where he has maintained his home 
since 1887, being a representative citizen and 
ever engaged in honorable and useful employ- 
ments. Mr. Hinckley was born in Salt Lake 
City, Utah, on March 15. 1857. the son of A. 
E. Hinckley, a member of a Mormon battalion 
which crossed the plains to Salt Lake City in 
1848, he immediately joining a relief party 
going east on the emigrant trail to assist a 
handcart company which was checked in its 
progress by deep snows. After the rescue was 
accomplished Mr. Hinckley was employed by 
the church in various labors, among them 
"running" a flour wagon and assisting in the 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



655 



erection of public buildings, and thereafter he 
was for fourteen years the general manager 
for Daniel H. Wells, supervising his farms, 
his mills and other operations. Removing to 
Weaver, Summit county, Utah, he held with 
the hearty approbation of the people of all po- 
litical creeds the office of county judge for 
ten years; then, making his home at Coal 
Creek, Willard county, he was there resident 
for five years. Then the church called him to 
Arizona on mission work of two years' dura- 
tion, and after its termination he came to Rex- 
burg, Idaho, where he died in February, 1901, 
having attained seventy-five years of life. His 
wife survived him and is living at Rexburg, 
aged sixty-one years. 

Ira N. Hinckley was early familiarized 
with the manifold labors and duties of life on 
a Utah farm and at the age of nine years he 
was employed in the hauling of coal, continu- 
ing in this vocation for five years, then being 
employed by his father until he was seventeen 
years old, when he was for two years con- 
nected with blacksmithing operations in Mor- 
gan county. Thereafter for five years he was 
employed in carrying the United States mails 
and in herding at Cove Creek, thence returning 
to Morgan county, where he was identified with 
railroad construction work for two years. 
Coming to Rexburg in the spring of 1885, he 
returned to Morgan county in the fall and 
there had his span of horses killed by the rail- 
road. Remaining in Morgan county for two 
years longer, he then came to the Upper Val- 
ley of the Snake River as a permanent resi- 
dent, locating on a homestead of 160 acres in 
association with his father in the Rexburg dis- 
trict, afterwards purchasing the interest of his 
father in the land, and later he was for two 
years in sawmilling operations. 

Mr. Hinckley has been somewhat promi- 
nently connected with matters affecting the 



public welfare, assisted in the construction of 
the second irrigating canal of the Rexburg 
district, has worked on every ditch "put in" 
this section, and was for six years, from 1891 
to 1897, a trustee of the Consolidated Farmers' 
Canal Co. In politics he is independent and 
has steadily refused official place and political 
office ; in the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
however, he has accepted positions of trust as 
a religious duty, having been counsellor to the 
Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associa- 
tion, and is now a member of the Seventies. 
By his marriage with Miss Elizabeth Rock, 
on May 23, 1870, he is father of the follow- 
ing named children: Ira N., Henry E., Har- 
vey, Lucy P., Hazel, Jared (died on July 23, 
1894), Emeline L., David and William. 

HYRUM DEWSNUP. 

It is well that now, while the pioneers are 
here with us, that we gather from their own 
life the story of their useful lives and embalm 
them on the printed page, so that after count- 
less coming generations will be the residents 
of this section, and when this good year of 
grace shall be one of the dates of antiquity, 
there may not' be lacking in their minds a ven- 
eration and a kindly feeling for those who 
wrought so earnestly for them so many years 
before their lives began, when the toilers were 
not man}% but who steadily held on the even, 
industrious tenor of their way, to reclaim, 
build up and improve a land of which their 
descendants might never be ashamed. And 
right well-have they worked and are still work- 
ing, for some of the earliest pioneers are yet 
in our midst, and among them now surviving 
none stands in higher esteem for the good 
works he has aided in accomplishing than Hy- 
ram Dewsnup, who has been active in the 
work of development from the earl)' years of 



6 5 6 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OE BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the settlement of Rexburg, and is now held in 
high regard and esteem as a highly industri- 
ous, prosperous, popular and public-spirited 
citizen. 

Hyrum Dewsnup was born on May 2, 
[852, in Manchester, England, being the son 
of John and Jemima (Topham) Dewsnup, the 
father filling well the responsible position of a 
police officer in Manchester. Becoming con- 
verted to the Mormon church through the un- 
selfish and untiring efforts of faithful mission- 
aries of that faith, he emigrated to Utah, cross- 
ing the plains with mule teams instead of the 
usual ox teams, and making his home at Fill- 
more. Willard county, the mother and chil- 
dren coming one year later. Here the father 
was engaged in the culture of the soil and the 
raising of cattle, dying at Deseret in 1883, at 
the age of fifty-three years, the mother also 
having crossed the Great Divide and now lying 
by her husband's side in the little cemetery of 
that locality. 

Hyrum- Dewsnup was early compelled to 
rely on himself and his own judgment, for the 
exigencies of life forced him to take up his 
own maintenance at the early age of twelve 
years, and from that time to the present he 
has been the master of his own destiny. From 
the age of twelve to that of seventeen years 
he was in the employ of one man. a fact that 
speaks well for his industry and faithful serv- 
ice, and thereafter he purchased a place at Fill- 
more and was active in various kinds of hard 
labor and freighting operations until he was 
twenty-one years old, when occurred his first 
marriage and his subsequent removal to Des- 
eret. This was his home and center of opera- 
tions until [882, when he was called to mission 
work in England for one year, which he suc- 
cessfully accomplished and returned to Des- 
eret, soon, however, removing to Rexburg, 
where he engaged in farming and also opened 
a mercantile establishment in the rapidly grow- 



ing city of Rexburg. Of this we will quote 
from one who knew whereof he spoke : "On 
the 15th of October, 1898, the People's Store 
was opened with Hyrum Dewsnup as presi- 
dent and his son, H. E. Dewsnup, as mana- 
ger. The remarkable growth of its business 
has been phenomenal. During the latter pari 
of 1899 their cash sales increased more than 
100 per cent." This evidences well the busi- 
ness capability, the love of fair dealing, and the 
underlying principles of integrity and honesty 
which are the essential elements of the char- 
acter of Mr. Dewsnup, and in the business op- 
erations he has since conducted has been ex- 
emplified the same broad grasp of the essen- 
tial principles of right doing, so that now he is 
universally recognized as one of the leading 
citizens, liberal, broad-minded and charitable. 
As a justice of the peace, to which office he 
was elected in 1900 on the Republican ticket. 
he brought to bear an innate love of justice and 
a regard of equity that caused his rulings to 
stand unchallenged. He was also chosen to 
the city council in 190T and is now a member 
of that body. A conscientious member of the 
Church of Latter Day Saints, he has held with 
merited approval the various offices of deacon, 
elder, teacher for some years, counsellor and 
he is now the high counsellor of the Fremont 
stake. 

Mr. Dewsnup was married to Miss Emily 
Mace, a daughter of Hiram and Elizabeth 
(Armstrong) Mace, who, coming at a very 
early day to Fillmore. Utah, became leading 
citizens and farmers of the locality until their 
deaths. A large family of interesting and ca- 
pable children were born to Mr. Dewsnup by 
this union, namely: Bertha A.. Hyrum F... 
Emily T... John F.. Phoebe E.. Ernest. Claude 
M.. Eva M„ Elsie V.. Joseph A. (deceased), 
Clara A.. William C. (deceased.) The chil 
dren of an earlier marriage were Laura, 
I teorge V. Arthur and Ruby. 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



657 



THOMAS ELLIOTT. 

Conspicuously numbered among the lead- 
ing business operators and progressive citizens 
of Fremont county, Idaho, where his mercan- 
tile establishment is located in the brisk and 
alert little city of St. Anthony, Thomas Elliott 
can justly be pronounced one of the represent- 
ative leaders of the trade of the Upper Snake 
River Valley. He was born on December 21, 
1857, in Yorkshire, England, his parents be- 
ing John and Elizabeth (Mathingham) Elli- 
ott, natives of the same county, where the 
family had been installed for countless gener- 
ations. The father was an overseer of a large 
coal mine for the long period of forty-five 
years, and, a devout communicant of the 
Church of England, he fearlessly met death 
at the age of sixty-five years. 

Receiving excellent educational advantages 
in the parish schools of his native city and sup- 
plementing - the instructions there secured by 
keen observation and the extensive information 
obtained through the diligent reading of the 
best literature, Mr. Elliott may be styled a 
finely educated person. He came to Fremont 
county in 1884, when as yet extreme pioneer 
conditions prevailed, and he has witnessed the 
rapid improvement, development and growth 
which the quickly passing years have accom- 
plished throughout the entire Snake River Val- 
ley. His first enterprise in this new land was 
the cutting and securing of hay, but it was not 
long before he became connected with the mer- 
cantile operations of the Daniels & Winters 
Store, continuing to be thus employed for 
seven busy years. He then engaged for him- 
self in the hardware business, which he is now 
prosperously conducting at St. Anthony. He 
shipped the first carload of hogs sent from 
Fremont county and for a time was the pur- 
chasing and selling agent of large wheat deal- 
ers of Osrden, Utah. 



The principles and policies of the Repub- 
lican political party have ever appealed to him 
as being the best adapted to the needs and 
necessities of the people, and its candidates 
and campaigns have received his hearty sup- 
port and cooperation. On December 23, 1897, 
he received a commission as United States 
commissioner for the district of Idaho, being 
now in the incumbency of the office. Reared 
in the Episcopal faith and supporting it until 
1885, Mr. Elliott was then converted to the 
doctrines of the Church of Latter Day Saints, 
and two years later, when he came to Rex- 
burg, he was chosen as the organist of the lo- 
cal church, later being ordained in succession, 
priest, elder, high priest, and is now holding 
the office of second counsellor to the bishop 
of Rexburg ward. In this connection we must 
mention that Mr. Elliott possesses fine taste, 
intellectual acumen and an artistic nature, 
which is manifested in many ways and par- 
ticularly so in the handsome residence he oc- 
cupies, which is one of the most attractive 
homes, not of Rexburg merely, but of the 
county, while as a member of the board of 
trustees of the Fremont Stake Academy he has 
accomplished much good for the cause of edu- 
cation. 

It was on February 5, 1884, that the mar- 
riage of Mr. Elliott and Miss Agnes Burkin- 
shaw was celebrated at Yorkshire, England. 
She is the daughter of George and Betty 
(Howard) Burkinshaw, natives respectfully 
of Lancaster and Yorkshire, the father being 
a lifelong collier and his death occurring on 
December 22, 1901, his wife preceding him 
to the other life on May 22, 1897, and both 
are awaiting the resurrection in the ancient 
cemetery of Tankinsley church in Yorkshire. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Elliott have been born a 
family of interesting children, all now living, 
whose names and dates of birth we here an- 
nex : Charles and Lucy, born in Yorkshire, 



658 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



England, the first on October 27. 1884. the 
second on February 20. 1887; John F., born 
at Teton on September 26. 1889; Lee, born 
at Rexburg (as were all the younger ones) on 
December 19, 1891 ; George O.. born Febru- 
ary 11, 1894; Howard B., born October 6, 
1897, and Ada, born December 23, 1899. 

MILES R. CAHOOX. 

Whether exactitude in the application of es- 
tablished principles to the problems which con- 
cern men in their various relations to each 
other and to society is born of a quickened 
and enlightened conscience, or springs neces- 
sarily and unavoidably from the mental con- 
stitution of the individual, is a question upon 
which theologians, psychologists and metaphy- 
sicians may not all be agreed, but it is abso- 
lutely certain that it is usually, if not invari- 
ably, characteristic of men who are truthful 
and just — simply because they can not be oth- 
erwise. This was the public estimate of Mr. 
Cahoon when he first attracted attention. 
While he has ever been considerate of the opin- 
ions of others differing from him honestly, he 
has also been intolerant of any form of un- 
truthfulness and of infidelity to accepted stand- 
ards of truth, honesty and justice, and a review 
of his life and activities is so pertinent to a 
work of this character that it would seem to 
be incomplete without it. 

Miles R. Cahoon was born on October 1, 
1859, at South Cottonwood, Utah, a son of 
M. and Sarah (Rodney) Cahoon. natives re- 
spectively of Scotland and England, who early 
came from England to the United States and 
to Utah, the father homesteading land at Mur- 
ray, where For a time he was engaged in gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising operations. 
Thereafter he returned to South Cottonwood, 
where he was residing at his death, at fiftv-six 
years of age; the venerable mother of our sub- 



ject has long survived her husband and 1 
passing the evening twilight of her life at Re 
burg. 

Possessed of intense physical vigor. Mr. 
Cahoon at twenty-two years was employed to 
work in a smelter, at which occupation he con- 
tinued for five years, thereafter being for three 
years employed in a clerical capacity in a mer- 
cantile establishment. He thence removed to 
Rexburg in the fall of 1883 as a pioneer of 
the Snake River Valley, taking up a home- 
stead in close proximity to the townsite, on 
which he became familiar with the hardships, 
deprivations and peculiar labors that were the 
common lot of the pioneer settlers of the 
sagebrush plains, and conducted the primitive 
farming of the place and period, connecting 
with it the attendant branch of husbandry, the 
raising of cattle. Selling this property and re- 
moving to St. Anthony, the county-seat, to 
attend to the duties connected with the ad- 
ministration of the office of probate judge, he 
was also for three years engaged in a prosper- 
ous merchandising business at Rexburg, or- 
ganizing the firm of Miles R. Cahoon & Co. in 
1899 as a successor to the Rexburg Mercantile 
Co., of which he was also a member. A man 
of the people, he was ever in touch with them 
and the elements of popularity crystallized 
around him naturally and readily. He assisted 
in their pioneer endeavors for the development 
of the land and country, was one of the work- 
ers in the construction of the old Wolf Canal, 
which later was merged in the Consolidated 
Farmers' Canal Co., and of this latter corpora 
tion he was the owner of one-seventh of the 
original stock, while later he became the pio- 
neer brickmaker of the county. 

A stalwart Republican in political faith, he 
was early elected as a justice of the peace. 
which office he held until the organization of 
Fremont county in 1893. when, in accordance 
with the provisions of the act creating the new 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



659 



county, he was appointed and commissioned 
to serve as the first probate judge and county 
superintendent of schools, holding these dual 
offices with such conceded ability, that after 
his first two-years term of office, he was elected 
as his own successor for another term of two 
years. He was also commissioned as captain 
of Company C of the Idaho National Guards, 
upon the organization of that body on May 
3, 1899, and in numerous positions and offices 
of public and private trust he has rendered 
conscientious, faithful and appreciated serv- 
ice. 

Mr. Cahoon formed a most felicitous mar- 
riage union when, on November 27, 1883, at 
Murray, Utah, Miss Mary McMillan became 
his wife. She is a daughter of Michael and 
Mary (Brown) McMillan, whose parents emi- 
grated from Scotland to Murray, Utah, in 
1870, thereafter engaging in farming and the 
raising of stock both at Murray and at their 
ranch in Grass Valley, Utah, and being num- 
bered among the leading people of the place, 
manifesting those sturdy Scotch characteristics 
that have ever made the sons and daughters 
of Scotland prominent and honored. Six 
children have come to round out and bless the 
family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Cahoon, Reno 
(died on July 23, 1902), Mary J., Michael M., 
Miles R.. James A. and Silver. 

LUKE L. LAVERY. 

The Lavery Brothers, of near Rexburg, 
Fremont county, Idaho, where they are pros- 
perously connected with ranching operations 
and one-twelfth owners of all the stock of the 
r -"- :,..";; 1 Farmers' Canal Co., are splendid 
, A aiP r: Jo ji what industry, energy and prac- 
. ■ common-sense and business application 
accomplish in this great Western land of 
jortunities, and in this connection, and to 
.fford incentive and stimulus to youth desirous 



by their own labors to become independent, 
we will here review the useful career of the 
brother whose name heads this paper. 

Luke L. Lavery was born in Ireland, in 
July. 1852, a son of William and Ellen (Con- 
ley) Lavery, and in 1875 he secured a position 
as a section hand on the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, showing such honest zeal and fidelity to 
duty, as well a quick comprehension of the 
proper thing to do at the proper time, that 
after one year he was advanced to be a fore- 
man, in which position he continued one year, 
thereafter being transferred to the bridge gang 
where the same- qualities causing his first pro- 
motion again brought him to the front and 
he was placed in charge of bridge construc- 
tion. He continued to be thus occupied until 
1899, holding for seventeen years continuously 
the responsible position of foreman of the 
bridge building department of the Union Pa- 
cific and Oregon Short Line Railroads, a most 
commendable record. Mr. Lavery first came 
to Echo, Utah, with his men in railroad work- 
in 1885, and there filed on a homestead, then 
returned to his railroad employment, leaving 
his brother in charge of the ranch and they 
have labored together most harmoniously and 
effectively, bringing their land into rapid and 
valuable improvement and acquiring an envi- 
able reputation in the community. Luke served 
one term as a director and one term as water- 
master of the Consolidated Farmers' Canal 
Co., and incidentally we will here mention that 
two uncles of the Lavery brothers, one on the 
paternal side and one on the maternal side, are 
highly accredited priests of the Roman Cath- 
olic church. 

On December 28, 1883, the subject of this 
review was united in holy matrimony with 
Miss Adeline P. Knowles, a daughter of Wil- 
liam and Theresa Knowles, who in the early 
ox-train days crossed the plains to Logan, 
Utah, where they now reside. Their daughter 



66o 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



had but a few years of married life, since her 
death occurred in 1890, leaving three children, 
William J., Bernard J. and Elizabeth A., all of 
them being now deceased. By his second wife, 
Catharine Theresa McBride, a native of Ire- 
land, Mr. Lavery had no children, but has an 
adopted son, Charles W. Nolan Lavery. 

It is not too much to say that if every 
citizen of this country gave as incessant and 
intelligent effort to the task of acquiring a 
competence as has Mr. Lavery, the evils of 
poverty would be to a high degree eliminated 
and independence and comfortable homes 
would be by that industry provided for many 
who are now homeless. 

JOSEPH MORRIS. 

A native of the small, rough but eminently 
productive land of Wales, and in his career 
manifesting a marked pioneer spirit in that he 
has been connected with many of the first 
things brought by civilization to this original 
land of the sagebrush and cactus, the wolf and 
the coyote, Joseph Morris, now a well-known 
citizen of Rexburg, Fremont county, Idaho, 
was born on May 11, 1846, at Eberdare. 
Wales, the son of Ebenezer and Mary (Reese) 
Morris, also natives of Eberdare, where the 
father was a collier, once journeying to Amer- 
ica but returning to his native place six months 
later and continuing in his former vocation 
until his death in 1850. Immediately subse- 
quent to this sad event the mother came to the 
United States, crossing the plains with her 
four small children and experiencing to the 
full all that the early pioneers knew of depri- 
vations and hardships, locating at Salt Lake 
City for seven years, thence removing to Wells- 
ville. Cache county, where her death occurred 
in March. 1886, at the age of sixty-seven 
years. 

Joseph Morris from the force of circum- 



stances was thrown upon his own resources at 
the early age of eight years, commencing life 
for himself by herding, first sheep for three 
years, then cattle for two years, then becom- 
ing identified with a "bull team" freighting 
outfit, freighting between Utah and Carson 
City, Nev., for one year, then for another year 
between Salt Lake and Virginia City, Mont., 
then between Farmington. Utah, and Omaha, 
Neb., for one season. Thereafter he was con- 
nected with farming operations in Davis 
county, Utah, for four years, after which he 
was identified with logging and lumbering en- 
terprises on his own account in Cache county, 
Utah, for fourteen years, at the termination 
of this period, in 1881, removing to Rexburg, 
Idaho, and taking up a homestead of 160 
acres at Teton City, he held it for three years 
and sold his relinquishment. During his Utah 
residence Mr. Morris was a member of a vol- 
unteer military organization for twenty-two 
months and during the year 1867 he was in 
service in the Blackhawk Indian war, and for 
four and one-half years he was the compe- 
tent superintendent of the Logan Temple saw- 
mill works. 

Mr. Morris, coming to Rexburg as he did 
in the very commencement of civilized action, 
has had much to do with the pioneer move- 
ments. He aided in the building of all of the 
early irrigating canals, was the efficient super- 
intendent of the Rexburg Canal in 1881 and 
1882, was the watermaster of the canal for 
four years from the time the water was first 
turned in, is now a stockholder in and also the 
watermaster of the Rexburg City Canal, hold- 
ing this office for seven years. He raised crops 
of wheat, potatoes and oats the first year that 
any crops were produced in this portion of the 
valley and to secure freedom for his family 
from the fierce onslaught of mosquitoes he 
constructed the first cellar of Rexburg. 

He was the Democratic candidate for con- 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



66 1 



stable at the first election held for that office 
and was successful at the polls, receiving a 
complimentary majority, and six years later 
he was again nominated and elected to the 
same office, in which he then served for three 
terms of two years each. In 1896 he was ap- 
pointed city marshal of Rexburg and has been 
continued in office until the present by con- 
secutive annual appointments, while in 1898 
he received the appointment of county game 
warden, to hold office for five years. In the 
Mormon church he has been an earenst and a 
faithful worker, holding all of the offices in 
gradation up to high priest, in which capacity 
he is now serving. 

At Farmington, Utah, on January 5, 1868, 
were married Mr. Morris and Miss Marantha 
A. Peel, a daughter of John and Hannah 
(Rhodes) Peel, who came from their native 
land of England to America, and while cross- 
ing the plains in a handcart brigade, the hard- 
ships encountered resulted in the death of the 
father at Devil's Gate, Wyo., where, at the 
age of fifty-nine years, he was buried by the 
side of the emigrant trail. The mother contin- 
ued the journey to Salt Lake City and two 
years later removed to Farmington and was 
subsequently twice married, first to J. Raw- 
lins and second to Henry J. Powell. The 
closing years of her life were passed with her 
daughter, Mrs. Morris, her death occurring at 
Logan, Utah, when she had attained seventy- 
two years of life. The marriage union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Morris has resulted in the following 
named children : Joseph E., born October 25, 
18 — , deceased; Mary A., born February 17, 
1870; John A., born February 7, 1873, died 
November 20, 1902; Marantha A., born -No- 
vember 5, 1875 ; Hyrum P., born January 2, 
1878; Marguerite R., born July 5, 1880; Han- 
nah L., born October 9, 1882; David A., born 
May 5, 1885; Calista, born March 10, 1888; 
Elsie D., born May 19, 1890. 



CHRISTIAN C. SHETLER. 

The subject of this biographical notice was 
born in Nebraska, of German parentage, and 
his early life was passed and his education ac- 
quired at the excellent schools of Kearney, 
Neb., where also his business life covered the 
mature years of his existence until June, 1901, 
when he came to Lewisville, Fremont county, 
Idaho. He purchased land for a home and 
soon entered business activity as a salesman 
and collector for the Consolidated Implement 
Co., of Idaho Falls, and in this connection 
he is now maintaining headquarters and offices 
at St. Anthony, the flourishing and rapidly 
growing county-seat town of Fremont county. 
His business ability, zealous activity and ad- 
mirable qualities as a salesman bespeak his 
rapid advancement in commercial circles. He 
was united in marriage, on May 26, 1895, with 

Mrs. (Williams) Eston, a native of 

Topeka, Kans., who has had an eventful life 
of mingled sunshine and shadow, over which 
a most genial and sunny disposition, dominated 
by mental powers of a high order, has thrown 
a mantle of cultured philosophy. 

Mrs. Shetler was born on June 14. 1872, 
a daughter of John I. and Rebecca (Evans) 
Williams, the father springing from an an- 
cient Welsh ancestry, although born in Kil- 
larney, Ireland, of immediate ancestors native 
in the same locality, while the mother was 
born in Pittsburg, Pa. Both of the parents 
came to Kansas in their youthful days and met 
and- were married at Topeka, where their 
deaths occurred not long after the birth of 
Mrs. Shetler, who at the age of five months 
was adopted by a benevolent couple, Daniel 
and. Elizabeth Haney, of Burlingame, Kans., 
who reared her until her marriage on August 
26, 1885, with Capt. Malcolm Eston, an officer 
of the Eighth United States Cavalry, then sta- 
tioned at Fort Meade, South Dakota, who, in 



662 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



1890, was killed in active service. She was 
the mother of three children by this marriage. 
Xita. born December 25, 1887. died June 9, 
1890; Daniel and Malcolm, twins, born and 
died on June 10. 1890. 

After the tragical conclusion of her short 
but happy term of married life, the young 
widow again engaged in study, taking up the 
studies she had abandoned at the Burlingame 
high school and for one year giving diligent 
attendance at the excellent state normal school 
of Kaw, Kans., there supplementing her 
former scholastic training with the methods 
and practice of successful teaching. She be- 
came well qualified to pursue that vocation, 
which her natural grace, culture, patience and 
true womanhood well qualified her to adopt, 
but from which she was diverted by her sec- 
ond marriage, to which allusion has hereto- 
fore been made. Mrs. f Shetler is highly es- 
teemed in all circles where circumstances have 
caused her to be placed, a winning cordiality, 
a warmth of friendship and a heart susceptible 
to and sympathetic with all sorrow and suffer- 
ing winning for her the esteem, respect and 
abiding friendship of all classes, and her 
friends are in number as her acquaintances. 

JESSE TUTTLE CLARK. 

The life record of this honored citizen has 
been an eventful one. for he has been identified 
with the marvelous development of Utah and 
Idaho from his childhood's days, when exist- 
ence in the inter-mountain section of the 
Great West was attended by many difficulties 
and dangers, when hostile demonstrations "of 
the Indians were not of uncommon occurrence 
and the fear of them ever shadowed the pioneer 
homes like a black mantle of volcanic smoke, 
and he has seen the first few feeble efforts to 
implant civilized homes in the sagebrush wil- 
derness gradually develop, and Utah and the 



Upper Valley of the Snake River become dot- 
ted with bustling towns and villages (all come 
into existence within his memory) and every- 
where sprinkled with settlers' homes and 
ranches; he has seen the need of the old "min- 
ute men," who were arrayed to repel savage 
invasions, and in which he gallantly served 
for years as a first lieutenant, pass away like 
a fearful dream of the night, and he has fur- 
ther seen a band of brave and industrious pio- 
neers, of which he also has been a member, by 
their industry and earnest toil make the wil- 
derness literally become gardens, the old crude, 
barbaric darkness pass away and the full 
brightness of civilization shine in a new land, 
"strange, rich and beautiful." 

Jesse Tnttle Clark was born in Steuben 
county. X. Y.. on March 8. 1840, a son of 
Israel and Elizabeth (Tuttle) Clark, both na- 
tives of Xew York, who came to the far West 
in 1847 and located at Creston. near Omaha. 
Neb., where the father combined milling with 
the raising of stock. In 1859 ne removed to 
California and three years later returned thence 
so far as Cache count} - . Utah, where he as- 
sisted in the building of the town of Logan 
and the mills located there. 

In March. 1855, the subject of this review 
traveled through the lava beds and sagebrush 
deserts of the Snake River Valley while trad- 
ing with the Flathead Indians and assisted in 
building roads and bridges all along the north 
side of Snake River. So he was a pioneer even 
here, where his permanent home was to be es- 
tablished almost a generation of years later. 
Mr. Clark continued to reside in Utah, giving 
diligent attention to differing industries of 
value to the community until October. 1883. 
when he came to Rudy, made use of his home- 
stead right on bis present location, and. on 
March 14. 1884, arrived bere with his family, 
household goods, stock, etc. From that time 
to the present writing this section has had a 



BINGHAM, FREMONT AND ONEIDA COUNTIES, IDAHO. 



663 



most valuable citizen in Mr. Clark. He took 
hold with energy in helping forward the con- 
struction of irrigating canals and ditches, and' 
has diligently occupied himself in developing 
and improving his home farm and the indus- 
tries connected with its cultivation and the 
raising of superior herds of cattle and sheep. 
He has been prospered in his endeavors and 
occupies a representative position in the com- 
munity as a worthy and law-abiding citizen of 
public spirit and liberality. In the Church of 
Latter Day Saints his character has won him 
distinction, being ordained one of the Seven- 
ties in 1856, later a high priest and in due time 
recognition was given to his executive ability 
and deeply religious nature and he was conse- 
crated and set apart as a bishop. His mar- 
riage with Miss Margaret Edwards was sol- 
emnized on March 17, 1864, her parents, John 
and Margaret (Roberts) Edwards, being na- 
tives of Wales, who after a residence of some 
years in Pennsylvania came to Utah in an early 
day and settled at Brigham City. 

This marriage union has been of mutual 
advantage and of desirable harmony, and a 
family of ten children has come therefrom to 
cheer the home, namely: Margaret A.. Jesse 
T., John E., Israel H., Florence, Thomas O., 
Olive D., Elmer L., Charles W. and Mary J. 

JOSIAH SCOTT. 

This pioneer farmer of the Upper Valley 
of the Snake River well deserves to have his 
life commemorated in this volume devoted to 
the progressive men of this section of the 
state, for his has been an eminently useful ca- 
reer in that he was one of the very first to 
demonstrate the possibilities and capabilities 
of the lands of this valley when properly im- 
proved and irrigated and cultivated by so ca- 
pable and thorough a farmer as himself. Jo- 
siah Scott was born at Salt Lake, Utah, on 



August 20, 1854, a son of John and Elizabeth 
E. (Menary) Scott, both parents being of Irish 
stock and the father born in Ireland, while the 
mother was a native of Canada. While resid- 
ing at Palmyra, N. Y., the father embraced the 
Mormon faith, came to Nauvoo, where his 
marriage took place, and in 1848 came to 
Utah, coming across the plains in one of the 
earliest ox-train companies, and locating first 
at Salt Lake City and later at Mill Creek, four 
miles south. There and at Cache Valley he 
passed his life as a thorough and practical 
farmer, dying at Cache Valley, but his body 
was taken to Salt Lake City for burial. The 
death of the father caused the subject of this 
review to become the dependence of his wid- 
owed mother and the smaller children when 
but fourteen years of age, and his filial devo- 
tion caused him to labor with all of his en- 
ergy, as was necessary for him to do in this 
emergency, and he engaged in hauling lumber 
by the thousand feet from Gardner's sawmill 
to Salt Lake City with his own team, continu- 
ing to be thus employed until he was nearly 
twenty-six years old, in the interims of this 
employment industriously laboring on the 
farm. His first acquaintance with the Snake 
River country was in 1880, when he came to 
Idaho and conducted freighting operations to 
various Montana points, after which he worked 
for wages for a time and then located on his 
present location, homesteading a tract of land 
at the point of the Little Buttes on Poole's 
Island, and commencing farming and stock- 
raising. The first year he plowed ten acres of 
his land, which he left unseeded till the next 
year when he sowed it to oats, harvesting 100 
bushels to the acre, and this enormous yield 
drew attention to the valley and the rapid in- 
flux of Mormon settlers from Utah followed 
immediately. 

Mr. Scott was early active in the vital ques- 
tion of irrigation, becoming a stockholder in 



"' >s* 



664 



PROGRESSIVE MEN OF BANNOCK, BEAR LAKE, 



the Long Island Irrigation Canal Co.. and as- 
sisting in the construction of the canal, being 
a director from the organization and the pres- 
ident of the company for the last six years. 
His experience shows wonderful results fol- 
lowing good husbandry in his section of the 
valley. He now has a most excellently im- 
proved, well-watered and productive farm, 
having no trouble in raising vegetables and be- 
ing the pioneer potato raiser, producing some 
of the finest ever raised in Idaho, some of 
which were sent to Niagara Falls as seed po- 
tatoes. He also raises roasting ears of corn, 
having also a carefully selected orchard of 
about one acre of apples, prunes, plums and 
cherries, most of the trees being in bearing. 
He has now largely abandoned grain raising, 
harvesting only about 100 bushels, devoting 
his attention to alfalfa, of which he aits two 
prime crops each season. 

The marriage of Mr. Scott and Miss Mary 
Walton occurred on June 24, 1886, her par- 
ents being George and Catherine (Walker) 



Walton and her birth being in September, 
1863. Her father was a native of England 
who settled in Salt Lake City, where he still 
resides. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Scott 
are nine in number, all still residing under the 
parental roof, as happy and contented a family 
as can be met anywhere. Their names and 
births are herewith given: Laura M., born 
March 30, 1887; Albert J., born July 30, 1888; 
Walter A., born March 20, 1891 ; Orson M., 
born February 20, 1892; Charles L, born De- 
cember 15, 1894; Clarence L., born May 24. 
1895; Erma S.. born February 9, 1897; Vera 
E., born December 22, 1898; Arthur E., born 
September 4, 1901. Mr. Scott takes a liberal 
view in public matters, aiding all attempts to 
benefit the community, being especially inter- 
ested in the cause of education, serving as a 
school trustee for seven years, while he renders 
faithful allegiance to the political party in 
which he believes, supporting its principles and 
candidates in the successive elections. All in 
all he is a valuable and a popular citizen. 



c 



iNtwrro 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



009 562 311 6 



